“Where’s the script?”
Zeren could only stare at his partner incredulously. “You already lost it?”
“It was on the table just a moment ago-” Mark glanced up. “Okay, since it’s already recording, we might as well just start! So-”
Mark cleared his throat, and plastered a smile across his face. “Hi everyone, today we’re going to talk about the crimes that Google has committed!”
“Not crimes, Mark,” Zeren corrected. “We’re covering Google’s antitrust lawsuit and their involvement in Red Wolf. Which also happens to be the facial recognition software that Israel is using to keep tabs on Palestine and its citizens, even as we speak.”
“So basically, crimes.”
Zeren folded his arms. “Let’s try to…..erase any bias here, shall we? Since you’re so intent on calling them crimes, why don’t you explain it?”
Mark smirked. “Okay, so, reader, you know how the government has this rule where no company could hoard a monopoly of a certain market?”
“Elaborate further.”
Whacking Zeren playfully, Mark continued,” So back in the 18th century or so, the Industrial Revolution came about! This was when trains, cars, calculators…. Dang, imagine doing math without a calculator these days-”
“Mark.”
“Right- so anyways, new technology was invented! This time period was also a big money grab for big companies. There was a strategy called ‘monopolization’. Well, the word isn’t really used much, but essentially, big companies would buy or put down smaller companies of the same niche, or marketing field, to further expand their own. Think of this as Apple taking over the phone industry. Let’s imagine they bought Samsung, Android, and whatever phone company there happens to be out there. Samsung and Android are now smaller sections of Apple. Now, in this hypothetical situation, to buy a phone, you would have absolutely no choice but to buy from Apple, because they’re the only phone company around. And because they are the only phone company around, they can jack the prices up as high as they want, and they would still get all the money!”
Zeren nodded along. “That actually happened with an oil company in the 1800s, ran by a man named Rockefeller. His company kept rising in economic worth until the government forced him to split and sell several shares of his company so Rockefeller didn’t control the entire oil corporation. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair to the consumers or his much lower competition.”
“The legislation, or well, law that prevents this from happening is called antitrust. And, according to 11 lawsuits that Epic Games (Fortnite’s Creators) brought to court, Google has violated it!” In Zeren’s opinion, Mark looked a little too happy when he was declaring that.
“Google has been seen to be striking private deals with private phone companies to make them the default browser. In some cases, Google is the only browser it supports.”
“Google’s scary that way.” Mark shrugged. “An example of the phone company deal is one with Google and Apple. If you say, own an iPhone, and open Safari to look something up, it would automatically send you to Google. You wouldn’t think of opening something like Bing, or Firefox in that scenario, right? Yep, that’s sort of the point they’re being sued in court for violating the antitrust laws. None of their competitors would get anywhere near close to the exposure Google currently has on its target consumer population.”
“They have been also using the Google Play Store, their mobile billing plans, and their advertising system in similar ways,” Zeren added. “At the point at which those cases are going right now, it’s not looking good for Google.”
“Or society! Think about how the United States would fall apart if Google was suddenly out of the question!” Mark stood up, leaning against the table. “Since Google has been doing this kind of stuff for years, many people have developed a dependency on their services. And if it’s gone?”
Zeren cleared his throat, interrupting Mark. “It will definitely make an impact on how the Internet is used today.”
“That would be an understatement.”