Google to sell Chrome AND be banned from re-entering the browser market for five years, recommends US Department of Justice

Earlier this week it was reported that the US Department of Justice's top antitrust officials would likely ask a judge to enforce a significant break up of Google, in part proposing that Chrome be sold off.

As of Wednesday night, the official paperwork has since been filed and we can now see that the authorities' plan is even further reaching than initially suggested—though you won't see me shedding a tear if this break up ever comes to pass.

Not only will a judge be asked to enforce Google's sale of Chrome, but the filing made to a Washington federal court also outlines that, "following its divestiture of Chrome [Google] may not reenter the browser market for five years" (via The Guardian).

The proposal also calls for Google to be prohibited from "acquiring any interests in search rivals, potential entrants, and rival search or search ads-related AI products," and that it must let go of any it already holds in its clutch. Furthermore, the documents additionally call for a halt to all "anticompetitive payments to distributors, including Apple" that are made to ensure Google is the default search engine on various companies' devices.

Speaking of AI, the DoJ's proposal also recommends that Google offer "data crawling rights" to parties such as content creators, so that they can choose to opt-out of, say, Google using its work to train its Large Language Model AI. Setting to one side the fact that I, as a person who is infrequently funny on the internet, would personally very much not like to see my words regurgitated by AI, anyone who's recently had to wade through search results flooded with AI dross can see this is a step in the right direction—if it's enforced.

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