Media: Op-Ed

Google Controls the Internet … and Us!

August 27, 2024

The American Spectator

The internet is currently controlled through searching, and if Google single-handedly dominates the means through which searching works, then Google effectively controls the internet.

Recently, a judge officially ruled that “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.” The Big Tech behemoth also engages in rampant censorship, placing “unauthoritative” voices in a digital ghetto. Now that Google is finally recognized as a bad actor in the search engine and ad industries, it is time to make sure that it does not continue to wield unparalleled control over the internet and consumers.

The main point of U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta’s August 5th ruling is that Google unlawfully spent large sums of money to serve as the default search engine for top web browsers. In 2021, Google paid Apple a whopping $18 billion to serve as its default search engine. The judgment also called out Google’s unreasonable ad costs that went above free market pricing.

Google was not only exerting total control over what users could find on the internet, but they were also preventing other companies from reaching these users.

Internet users do not often change the default search engine on their devices and browsers. Additionally, if they do not know the website they want to access at first, they are going straight to their search engine, most of the Google, to find what they are looking for. It makes sense then that Google would want to serve as the default search engine of widely used browsers while also making it more difficult to switch from that default. This strategy has allowed them to facilitate 99,000 search queries a second and obtain 92% of the search engine market.

Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, says that his company provides a better search engine service for users. However, the experience of many people and companies affected by Google’s antics betrays that claim.

The Internet’s Politics

Kansas Senator Roger Marshall plans to investigate Google for its decision to limit its suggested search autofill functionality from displaying “Trump” after users type “assassination attempt on” into the search field. Video emerged of former Google VP of Search Products Marissa Mayer revealing that Google prioritizes its own product links over its competitors despite the influence of other metrics like popularity.

In the lead up to the national vote in the U.K., Google banned the advertising account of Reform UK only to reinstate it after seeing the public outcry.

Google’s search behavior regarding the U.S. presidential election has been particularly awful. Research psychologist Dr. Robert Epstein evaluated the behavior of Google’s algorithm for the last decade, and he found that in 2020 the results were so skewed to promote Biden that they resulted in six million votes shifting towards him.

Google was accused of burying the Rumble exclusive link to the GOP debate live stream by CEO Chris Pavlovski, who says that it put corporate media at the top of search results for the stream. MRC Free Speech America researchers were unable to find any 2024 presidential campaign websites of Republicans on the first page of search results a day before the first Republican Party presidential primary debate.

Instead, they saw the websites of Democrat candidates both current and past. The list of ways in which Google fails to provide a superior search experience could go on and on.

Google and AI

Google is now looking to fundamentally change the very nature of internet searching in their favor with AI. The new plan is for “Google [to] do the Googling” and entirely remove the last bit of influence that searchers still have on the results they find. Through summaries compiled through AI rather than traditional links, Google would essentially work as the one providing the answers to search queries. With this final step into their role as truth arbiter, Google has removed any doubt of their ambitions to obtain total control over the internet.

The recent judgment against Google and their monopoly provides a chance to stop this dystopian evolution of the internet into Google’s manipulation tool. Real change to the make-up of the search industry must come from proportionate penalties on Google for their actions.

We must not allow Google to maintain their monopoly over such a powerful tool as internet search. With it, they can silence voices contrary to their corporate agenda, rake in billions of dollars through advertisement pricing manipulation, and unfairly promote their own products and services.

The internet’s viability for promoting America’s wellbeing is directly tied to search engines, and it will never reach its full potential if Google continues to dominate in the current fashion.

Caleb Larson is a cybersecurity researcher, policy analyst with the Internet Accountability Project, Heritage Foundation alum, and contributor at The Federalist where he writes about cybersecurity-related issues facing the United States.