 Analysts are calling it a landmark anti-trust case. Opening arguments have begun in the United States Department of Justice's suit against tech giant Google for monopolizing internet search for what it says is over a decade. What can we expect from the biggest anti-trust trial against a big tech company ever? Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, is in Russia for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Far East of the country. Why is the Western press paying so much heed to a meeting that is not unprecedented by any means? And what to Russia and North Korea hope to gain from it? That's the lineup on today's episode of The Daily Deepest. These are the questions we'll be asking our guests and reporters on the show coming to you as always from the People's Dispatch studios here in New Delhi. I'm Siddharth Ani and if you haven't already before we get into it I'll ask you to like and subscribe to the People's Dispatch YouTube channel. First up Google and its parent company Alphabet make upwards of $160 billion in advertising revenue a year. A new anti-trust case mounted by the United States Department of Justice as well as 38 states and territories argues that the company in fact used unfair as well as restrictive practices to create a monopoly in the Internet search space by signing contracts with original equipment manufacturers on both the Apple as well as Android platforms spending billions of dollars to ensure Google was the default search engine on their smartphones and other devices. Some sources indicate that as much as 90% of all searches on the Internet at least in the United States are done through Google which allows the company to profile users, target ads as well as set ad rates themselves. It makes therefore billions of dollars while also building a fortress that keeps competitors out. It's the heavyweight trial of the century and a reminder of another landmark trial against Microsoft a quarter of a century ago which set the legal precedence for many of the arguments the government will make over the course of the next few weeks. Bapasina is back on the show and he's of course following this trial with great interest. Let's go over to him for details. Bapasina your headlining a show where we have some really solid lineup of stories today. So you know you have to sort of live up to the hype that is being made off the United States' litigation now against Google anti-trust litigation that begins today. It's likely to be a long affair but outline for us to begin with what the arguments are on both sides and which way sort of things are pointed. Right so this is the really I mean probably hopefully this is the starting shot of a series of litigations which may come against big tech in general right so for the last I don't know for the last 5-10 years people have been saying that we are living in this different people have called it different things. Surveillance capitalism is one of the names which come up and the tech monopolies and then so the basic issue is that these there are a handful of companies the US multinational which have grown to occupy monopoly positions in their spaces and this is when I'm saying their spaces their spaces are not limited to tech. For example Google even though we think of it as a tech company Google really makes this money from advertising and so you should think of Google as an advertising company and it has established a monopoly position in the advertising market worldwide right and so there are other companies like Apple and Microsoft and Facebook right so these companies have Amazon is the other company which have occupied these monopoly positions in large like industries right and so there has been a talk for a long time of controlling them because they kind of hurt the marketplace they hurt innovation they hurt competition but they have become too powerful to be like some people till they have become too powerful to be controlled right and so this this kind of suit which has come to the district court of the District of Columbia is the first such attempt to try to counter this this increasing monopoly power of the tech company and the first cases have been brought by the Department of Justice along with 38 states and territories of the US so that's like US at 50 states so 38 is like a big chunk of those states and they are alleging that Google has been using its monopoly powers to kind of to restrict competition in the search market right so as we know that Google search is kind of the default search right so when people say go to search on the internet they say why don't you Google it right that is the monopoly position it has and what the the contention of the of the Department of Justice of the US government is that Google has unfairly respected access to the competition and how Google does it that Google has tied up deals with phone manufacturers right people like like let's say Apple or tons right this is a big phone player and they have made Google search as a default search in the in these phones right see so the two the two biggest chunks of the phone market one is Apple the other are the Android-based phones now you take Android like if you are a phone manufacturer and you are using Android which is kind of pretty much everybody other than Apple then it comes with these Google services and search is like the main of these services the other services are like Gmail and map other things you use in your Android phone but search is the key thing for Google right and so how Google makes its money is you go to Google to to search whatever you are looking for and to that Google has a profile of you because of the various tools you use on Google right and then Google gives you these search results some of these results are what about paid search right so these are what advertisers are advertising for whatever you are searching for right and that's how Google makes its money and like the bulk of Google's huge revenues come from search and so then Google is kind of using that monopoly position to to basically force the major platform on which people search which is now pretty much mobile which is like ubiquitous like smartphone and so they've gone to Apple and and and Samsung and all them Android phone all the Android phone makers by default take Android which comes bundled with the Google services and then Apple so the the the convention is that they're paid more than 10 billion dollars per year to Apple and these other companies to be the default search engine the default search engine so that's the government content what Google is contending is that it is relatively easy to replace Google as a search engine with some other search engine right let's say Bing is an alternate search engine it's relatively easy to do that me personally I don't think that most regular users if you are a techie you may figure it out but if you are a regular user it's not easy to figure out how to replace search on your phone with with some other search engine so so that's the the the issue which has been brought and it's going to be argued for the next like a few months I think it's going to be a long process right many witnesses many documents are going to be produced on both sides yeah yeah so just just opening arguments I guess taking place at this point but but does it look like a strong case that the government is making we've of course talked before about similar antitrust cases against Google and other big tech companies in Europe of course United States it's biggest sort of go-at-tech in 20 years since Microsoft what do you make of the environment in which all of it's happening and and how do you see sort of that the discourse around this trial proceeding over the next few months Bapa it you're right like this is the first big case in a long long time right I think more than 25 years the last case was against Microsoft in 1998 for Microsoft using it in those operating systems to have similar monopoly monopoly powers over Microsoft apps like office and browsing yeah at that time Microsoft lost that case and was asked to split up right but then on on appeal they kind of reached the settlement and they kind of got away without too much damage to the company so and if you look look at it the the last case where a company was actually broken up like a large company was broken up with AT&T and that was in the mid-80s so it's been a generation since we have seen any action against this massive monopoly what has changed I think is in the last 10 years people have increasingly got concerned about their lack of privacy right and the invasion of privacy by these large tech companies and I think with Cambridge Analytica that kind of concern became mainstream before that tech guys were saying look like bad things are happening right but with Cambridge Analytica with the like series of elections where these these tools were used to in fact influence elections right like the Brexit in UK the first Trump campaign and we have seen such campaigns all around the world right where where writing governments have come into power using effectively social media campaigns right not social media campaigns exclusively but social media played a very big role in it and targeted campaigns so that has made this concern now mainstream right and in at least in the US I think there is a bipartisan kind of consensus right between the Republicans and Democrats that something needs to be done like clearly something I think does need to be done but given the power of the tech companies so I mean if you look at the 10 biggest companies by a market cap worldwide each of them are tech companies right so the 10 amongst the 10 biggest companies eight companies are tech companies they wield enormous political influence so whether anything will finally be done or not remains to be seen but I think these are important steps in at least in the right direction I think the case is strong right I mean like I said off the bat if I ask you how do you replace search on your on your phone it's not something you can I mean maybe you can google it and figure it out figure yeah exactly yeah but it's not something you can just know how to do readily right so so I actually think that Google's assertion that it's something you can change easily I don't think that's right but we'll see what happens in the case now the other thing is that this is only the first of such cases which is brought against Google there is an expectation that by early next year maybe as early as Jan 2024 another case is going to be brought by the Department of Justice and it's going to attack Google's address right now that is the core of Google's money-making machine right and to search is kind of the page right you come to Google to search and then the ad platform is how Google make monetizes that page right yeah and so Google has a double monopoly on the search platform right so on from both it kind of squeezes both the uh the content creator right on you are putting the ad and the advertisers yeah completely like because Google controls both the people who are placing the ad and people who are getting the content and as well as the as the the product the product is you and me right we have been told and so Google controls and all all these various entities right and it's opaque right like the advertisers don't know who who is getting paid out like how the ad budget is actually getting paid the the content creators don't know how much of the how much of the ad revenue is coming to them for their content and you and me are completely unaware that we have been profiled right so so that's a strong case again now so that's the second such case against Google now there is there are these news that is coming in that the US department department of justice is going to bring up a similar case against Facebook for for privacy violation right you have already gone after Google for monopoly practices in the in the new region and and they have put a large fine on Google Google is appealing that let's see how that goes even countries like in countries like India even though the the scale of the fine is relatively smaller but in the the competition commission in India has fined Google for a very similar charge right that using monopoly it's monopoly position to restrict competitors in the android phone market yeah so we are seeing like this concerted effort by different government and different jurisdictions to somehow try to grapple the big beast of big day I personally am rooting for some control over big day right at least like you don't have these wild west days where where they do whatever they want but but again like we said given their political power let's see how far the government succeeds in controlling them yeah it should be interesting either ways to see how things develop Baba thanks very much for that update and also explaining what is actually it goes back also a while and it's a kind of complex and nice little web that they've managed to create so thanks for putting that very clearly and we'll catch you again for an update very soon in what is a vital visit for both his leadership and the future of his country the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is in Russia to strengthen ties with the Eurasian giant via meeting of course with President Vladimir Putin ties between Russia and Pyongyang are old and despite ups and downs over the course of history they are also strong Putin in particular has backed the most sanctioned economy in the world by providing aid and writing off billions of dollars in debt this time too Kim is coming with a wish list including of course vital food supplies but with the shadow of the Ukraine war over so much of the western media's coverage of everything to do with Russia the meeting is being built as more of a political statement and to increase military cooperation let's find out if that's what Dr. Abdul Rehman who covers the region for People's Dispatch has to say about all that Abdul good to have you with us on Daily DB as always where we're closing the show today with maybe more perspective than anything else on on this much talked about in the western media meeting between the leaders of Russia and North Korea which is not so unsurprising or unusual actually of course if you see the amount of attention which North Korea's visit Kim's visit to Russia has grabbed in the western media which usually considers it as one of those irrelevant pariah states in the global politics that basically shows the panic or whatever you call call it in the western in the western particular the US had to basically even before the meeting was it seems that was finalized the US had incline kind of inkling about it and kind of issued a threat that if Kim visits and kind of sells weapons to Russia that's what their primary fear that Russia is seeking weapons from North Korea just like Russia was seeking weapons from Iran from what not any country in South Africa the countries which were which are not considered to be a military large military producers in any way major players yeah major players in global military trade arms trade even the US has been basically making such allegations and most of these allegations have been found false alive so here also that the speculation is Russia is basically meeting Kim primarily to seek weapons but also they're also confused and they're also saying that it is primarily Russia's attempt to sell technology to North Korea there they need Russian technology to put on code improve their missile technology and so on and so forth so there is a complete confusion in the western media but they also it seems that they are quite rattled you can see with this particular visit which basically means nothing more than kind of an attempt by both the countries to develop the bilateral relationship given the fact that the both of them are by the way before we come to that the US threat the emptiness or horrors of that threat is quite obvious North Korea is already one of the most sanctioned countries in the world and what more US can do to kind of so that the North Korea can pay price and that one should try to it is difficult to understand so this this visit is nothing more than an attempt by both the countries given the given the fact that there is a geopolitical shift in the global politics and the West has basically both of them are victims of the global sanctions sanctions in particular and they basically see an opportunity here to develop a greater relationship and they share a border they share a history this is nothing new their relationship is not new it is a 75th five year since they have diplomatic relations so instead of looking at two countries trying to resolve their bilateral issues and kind of have a greater relationship this is made out to be a geopolitical event by the West and that basically it seems that Kim and Putin have basically they're also enjoying this attention and that they're basically using it as a forum to kind of give a message and that's what the significance of this particular event for the global politics is right you rightly mentioned the shared I mean came arrived on a train and the far east of Russia is a region anyway that the Russians seek to promote investment in this is all happening in in the backdrop of the eastern economic forum meetings as well so so there is a context for the meeting as well and and given what you're saying Abdul the impact of those sanctions and increasingly a western isolationist kind of attitude towards Russia as well so so isn't it natural in that circumstance that the two would seek to seek cooperation and food aid and exchange particularly with the grain deal has fallen through and the black sea as well all of these factors coming together exactly you see if you see a Russian foreign minister Lavrov in fact has basically stated which which is going to be a very big development if it is confirmed that Russia no longer supports the international sanctions against North Korea which were imposed first in 2006 and extended in 2017 it means and he also claimed by the way that China agrees with Russian stand on it it means two of the Security Council permanent members no longer support the extension of sanctions against North Korea that would mean a big achievement for North Korea it will also basically be a big blow diplomatically to the US and its allies and that is one part and if you see you rightly pointed out that these sanctions have been responsible for a large scale humanitarian crisis in North Korea the reports of course there is a very less report in the global media about the impact of the these sanctions inside North Korea but that is a well-known fact and North Korea is seeking and I think this has been on record that this meeting is primarily to see increased humanitarian help from Russia so unlike the western propaganda which basically is talking about weapons deal and so and so forth it may be the case that there is some kind of discussions on that also and Russians did not deny it but more than that it is also an attempt by North Korea to see much more food aid which basically will address some kind of economic concerns within North Korea so apart from it being a visit to basically deal with the technologies related to military and all it is also basically an attempt to kind of deepen the relationship and that's what Russia is emphasizing no matter what the west says it is Russia's right to develop relationship with this neighbor and in the benefit of Russia of course and also in the benefit of the its neighbors that also means that the larger region which includes China which includes Korea which includes other countries in the region so this is not only a military visit which basically has a military connotation it is a visit basically which has a larger implication for both bilateral and regional politics all right thanks very much Abdul just in time and thanks for putting it in very clear context for us this that's all we have on this episode of daily debrief as always we take this opportunity to invite you to head to our website 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