Trial Update #3 — US v Google

TRIAL UPDATE #3: Judge Takes Critical Anti-Monopoly Google Trial From “Limited Public Access” to “Closed”

September 22, 2023

We are in week two of the biggest anti-monopoly trial in decades, the outcome of which could define the future of the internet, artificial intelligence and Big Tech’s unchecked power – and the public is largely in the dark.

After Google lawyers made noise about redacted Google emails shown in court being posted on the Department of Justice’s website, Judge Amit Mehta has effectively closed public access to the crucial anti-monopoly trial this week.

That’s a wrap for Week 2 of #USvGoogle. Court opened up to the public for about five minutes today to deal with some housekeeping issues — but we didn’t get to hear any testimony from Apple senior exec John Giannandrea.

Judge Mehta told the parties he’d like to resolve the
— Big Tech on Trial (@BigTechOnTrial) September 22, 2023

The biggest nugget of information to come out of this week’s trial was the critical testimony from the CEO and Founder of DuckDuckGo, a search engine company that offers consumers more privacy and control over their data.

“We ultimately decided after three years of trying this that it was a quixotic exercise because of [Google’s] contracts,“ Gabe Weinberg said while testifying at the US versus Google trial this week.

And this was only accessible to reporters and the public by paying hundreds of dollars for court transcripts.

A+ but it’s sad a Zoom feed of this trial isn’t available to any credentialed member of the media who wants it (at minimum)

“Meet the Law Geeks Exposing Google’s Secretive Antitrust Trial” https://t.co/cPy1YaL7TP
— Luther Lowe (@lutherlowe) September 21, 2023

Bloomberg reporter Leah Nylen then stood up from the gallery, prompting Judge Mehta to ask who she was and why she was standing up. She identified herself as a Bloomberg reporter and said the posted exhibits provided important public access to the trial,
— Big Tech on Trial (@BigTechOnTrial) September 19, 2023

Good morning from Day 9 of USvGoogle! Apple's John Giannandrea took the stand briefly yesterday and is expected to continue his testimony today. But first, we expect the Justice Department to make known its position on public access to exhibits at the beginning of today's hearing
— Leah AntiTrustButVer1fy Nylen (@leah_nylen) September 22, 2023

After Google lawyers made noise about redacted Google emails shown in court being posted on the @DeptofJustice’s website, Judge Amit Mehta has effectively closed public access to the crucial anti-monopoly trial this week.... https://t.co/VS8vPoq94V
— American Economic Liberties Project (@econliberties) September 22, 2023

Before the trial even started the $1.7 trillion company Google managed to convince Judge Mehta to keep this potentially landmark trial free of a live video or audio feed, and has managed to keep daily transcripts from being released to the public, but on Monday they went a step further and asked for the Department of Justice to remove from public access and their website, damning internal Google memos, presentations and emails that they had been showing as exhibits in court. This evidence has been crucial for the little media coverage we are seeing about this historic trial. And in a dramatic turn of events,. Bloomberg’s reporter Leah Nylen stood up in court and told the judge as much, demanding access.

All of this is to say that the federal court system is not transparent, despite the fact that the public has a RIGHT of access to it and to know its workings.
— Leah AntiTrustButVer1fy Nylen (@leah_nylen) September 22, 2023

While few media outlets are jumping through the many obstacles to cover this trial, The Verge pushed back by publishing, “Here are the documents the Google antitrust trial judge didn’t want you to see.”

The Wired’s Paresh Dave put a spotlight on the lawyers and civil society groups keeping close eye on the trial and fighting back against the secrecy of the trial.

Great @wired article on @matthewstoller and @BigTechonTrial's efforts to bring transparency to the Google search trial — the most important antitrust trial of the century.

Google is suppressing public access to the trial, but here’s how the people & media are fighting back.👇🧵 https://t.co/C1B0CprxYm
— American Economic Liberties Project (@econliberties) September 21, 2023

As our friend at the TWIGA newsletter highlighted this week, the theme of this trial continues to be:

“What Is Google Hiding, with most of this week’s proceedings happening behind closed doors. There also remains a lack of clarity on the public's access to even *redacted exhibits*. But there's one thing we got on the record today -- more Google employees saying what they wrote in past emails just happened to be wrong now that the company is on trial.

In court last week, Google revealed that it pays Apple over $10 billion dollars annually to not only direct people to Google search when they are using an Apple iPhone and the Safari browser, but also that Google makes these annual payments to Apple on the condition that Apple does not build its own search engine.

These multi-billion dollar payments from Google to Apple and other phone manufacturers and web browsers impede innovation and harm competition, ultimately cementing Google’s monopoly, because the doors are closed for other companies to offer their search engines for adoption.

It is alarming how the secrecy around the inner workings of USvGoogle - the evidence, witnesses and court happenings - continue to become less and less accessible to the public.

That’s all for now. We’ll let you know of all significant developments in the trial as they happen. We’ll be there, watching, learning and rooting for justice.