HomeWinBuzzer NewsGoogle Purposely Destroyed Antitrust Evidence Claims the US Justice Department

Google Purposely Destroyed Antitrust Evidence Claims the US Justice Department

The DOJ claims Google has kept deleting messages and using anonymous chat apps despite a law preventing it from doing so.

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A report from the Wall Street Journal suggests the Department of Justice is laying a serious accusation on . Specifically, that the company purposely deleted potentially incriminating evidence that would reveal antitrust practices.

According to the DOJ, Google employees are trained to use chat mechanisms that are anonymous when conducting “substantive and sensitive business”. Furthermore, the government department claims employees use an instant-messaging app that deletes messages within 24 hours.

This is massive because a federal law issued in 2019 prevents Google from deleting chat histories of employees. That law was created when the antitrust lawsuit against the company was due to start.

The DOJ says despite that law, Google has kept using off-the-record apps and deleting messages. As for Google, it completely rejects the accusation and says it has been constantly providing its records to investigators.

“Our teams have conscientiously worked for years to respond to inquiries and litigation. In fact, we have produced over 4 million documents in this case alone, and millions more to regulators around the world.”

Antitrust Claims

The DOJ is battling Google in an antitrust lawsuit that is seeking to prove the company used unfair and anti-competitive practices to dominate the web search market. With the recent launch of Microsoft's Bing Chat AI search platform, is under more pressure than ever. If the company is found guilty it could face major consequences.

Of course, Google is no stranger to regulatory action against it. The company has been hit with several record multi-billion-dollar fines in the .

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Luke Jones
Luke Jones
Luke has been writing about all things tech for more than five years. He is following Microsoft closely to bring you the latest news about Windows, Office, Azure, Skype, HoloLens and all the rest of their products.

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