DOJ asks judge to force Google to sell off its Chrome web browser

The U.S. government wants to break up Google. The Department of Justice asked a federal judge late Wednesday night, Nov 20, to force the sale of the Google Chrome web browser to keep the company from continuing to squash competition through its dominant search engine. 

This comes after a landmark ruling earlier this year found Google violated U.S. antitrust law to maintain an abusive monopoly over the past decade. 

In a 23-page document, the Justice Department also called for tighter restrictions to prevent Android from favoring Google’s search engine. Justice lawyers also asked the judge to allow websites to opt out of having data trained by Google’s AI models.

“The playing field is not level because of Google’s conduct, and Google’s quality reflects the ill-gotten gains of an advantage illegally acquired,” the Justice Department wrote in its filing.

Google has promised to appeal. It had previously called the Justice Department’s proposals “staggering.”

“DOJ’s approach would result in unprecedented government overreach that would harm American consumers, developers, and small businesses — and jeopardize America’s global economic and technological leadership at precisely the moment it’s needed most,” Google said in a statement earlier Wednesday.

Bloomberg reported that if the move is approved by a judge, Chrome could sell for as much as $20 billion.