Google is the biggest online-based corporation in the world. That’s quite an accomplishment, right? Not if you ask some international government entities.
The European Union, with headquarters based in Brussels, Belgium, is calling for their break up. There are calls to do this through anti-trust suits and/or new laws to shorten it’s far reaching influence. One draft motion says, and I quote, “…unbunlding of search engines from other commercial sites” should be used to weaken Google. This rare move for the EU is being led by German politicians from both the right and left side of the aisle. One of Google’s most outspoken critics is EU Digital Commissioner G?nther Oettinger out of Germany. He’s proposing levies for displaying copyright material, forcing neutral search results and he’s not too crazy about Google car software either. But clashes have been nothing new between Google and European elected officials. They’ve fought over everything from privacy issues to global commercial dominance. Remember the right to be forgotten controversy?
Obviously, things are done on that continent differently than what I’m used to. But there is a part of me that understands where these EU leaders are coming from. Often times, a corporation can get too big to fail. When they get too big to fail, they can become too big to care. But I don’t think that’s Google’s case and I think there’s more to this. This seems like the European Union wants more control over what Google does in Europe. This isn’t good. When any government gets too much control of any private owned company, it can lead to censorship and many other social ills. So when I read quotes like ‘unbundling if search engines from other commercial sites’, that makes me nervous. So what do you think the EU motive of breaking up Google is: fair play or government control?