DOJ wants Google to ditch Chrome

The Department of Justice is fighting to force Google to sell off its Chrome browser in an antitrust action against the company. In August, a judge ruled the tech giant held an illegal search monopoly in the US – the same judge the Justice Department is now asking to mandate that Google ditch Chrome, which is valued at roughly $2o billion. The Chrome browser pushes users into the Google ecosystem, using the company’s search, ad, and data-hoovering operations to dominate the market.

The Justice Department play comes as the government is suing Apple (for a third time in a decade and a half), alleging it has built a monopoly around its iPhone and app ecosystem. The government is also suing Google over its domination of the online ad market. There are several other stateside tech lawsuits, too.

Canada is pursuing its own investigation into Google’s ad practices. Earlier this spring, four large school boards in the country launched a class action suit against Meta, Snap Inc. and ByteDance (which operates TikTok), alleging the companies harm students and their capacity to learn.

The suits are part of a growing anti-big tech push aimed at restraining the giants and sorting out their position in the marketplace — and both the media and democratic ecosystems. The process is slow-going, but legal precedents — such as what may come from the current Justice Department cases – could have major national and perhaps even international consequences for tech users and companies looking to break into the market.