It isn’t a secret that Google has been under investigation by the Department of Justice for over a year. Google even confirmed as much earlier this year, in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. This week it became clear that a case is likely to be brought sooner rather than later. Specifically, The New York Times is reporting that it could come in the next few weeks despite the objections of some of the investigators involved.
Let’s set aside the politics of rushing to get a case filed before an election. It would be tempting to think it’s a good thing for the government to rein in big tech companies, especially those with such an outsized impact over our daily lives, right? Sure, to some extent that’s true, but the reality is that the government, and especially the courts, are usually ill-equipped to grapple with the complex business models of most tech companies.
