The corporation is allegedly frequently erasing internal messaging chat records, which are supposed to be preserved by federal regulations for an antitrust lawsuit, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). Google is battling not one, but two antitrust lawsuits brought by the DOJ and coalitions of states. The department sued for “illegally retaining monopolies” on search and search-related advertising in 2020, and this case relates to that lawsuit.
Employees of the corporation reportedly discussed “substantive and sensitive business” in their internal chatroom, which was configured to erase history every 24 hours, according to the DOJ’s petition. According to the agency, Google “reasonably anticipated [the] litigation” in 2019 and changed its chat history setting, although it left the choice up to individual employees.
Few people retained their conversation records for the court because they felt they were important to the case, and Google continued deleting the majority of people’s chat history long after the lawsuit was filed.
Google allegedly informed the government that it had already “placed a legal hold in place” to halt auto-deletion on its chat service despite this. The DOJ asserts that the business lied when it said it ceased deleting conversation history and that it only actually stopped doing so this week after being informed that the agency would submit a motion for sanctions.
Following tweet confirms that US Justice Dept accuses of evidence destruction.
U.S. Justice Dept accuses Google of evidence destruction in antitrust case https://t.co/lU9N6mJLZH pic.twitter.com/ALuTvuPrIx
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 24, 2023
DOJ Wants Court To Punish Google
It is now requesting that the court declare Google in violation of the law and set a hearing to decide how to punish the business. Also, the DOJ is asking the court to compel Google to provide more details regarding its chat policies.
Google, however, refutes the accusations made by the DOJ. A representative stated to The Wall Street Journal: “For years, our employees have diligently tried to address questions and legal matters. In reality, we have provided millions more records to authorities worldwide in addition to the approximately 4 million we submitted in this case alone.”
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