The uncomfortable truth is this: America’s position as the global technology leader is more fragile than we care to admit. China, with its authoritarian efficiency, is accelerating investments in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and frontier technologies—closing the innovation gap faster than ever. And yet, instead of strengthening the companies that fuel our digital advantage, the U.S. government is threatening to dismantle them.
The Department of Justice’s latest antitrust crusade against Google is not just shortsighted—it’s dangerous. This aggressive move risks throttling the very innovation engine that keeps the United States competitive on the world stage. In its zeal to appear tough on “Big Tech,” the DOJ is prioritizing punitive action over pragmatic policy, threatening to drag America toward the stagnant model of the European Union—a region that’s become a cautionary tale for overregulation.
Just look at the numbers. Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, pointed out last year that U.S. productivity has grown 6% since 2019. Europe? Just 0.6%. One major reason: regulatory suffocation. The Digital Markets Act (DMA), a stifling regulatory framework that was instituted in 2023, has done no favors for the EU’s already lagging tech industry. As former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi bluntly put it, “The EU’s regulatory stance towards tech companies hampers innovation.”
Now, the DOJ wants to go even further than the DMA—proposing that Google disclose highly sensitive data that could expose consumer behavior, advertiser strategies, and even allow re-identification of private users. In doing so, it risks weaponizing consumer data in a regulatory experiment that millions of Americans never signed up for. This isn’t just regulatory overreach—it’s a potential gift to bad-faith foreign actors eager to exploit vulnerabilities in our digital infrastructure.
Let’s be clear: the United States distinguishes itself from authoritarian regimes like China not just by its innovation, but by its values—chief among them, privacy. Dismantling Google would endanger massive troves of personal information trusted to one of the most secure systems on Earth. If sensitive data is scattered among fragmented entities or handed off to less capable operators, we risk violating that trust. At risk are daily searches that so many rely on Google for, ad bids that fuel small businesses, and even the clicks that guide us through our digital lives.
But the damage doesn’t stop with privacy. The ripple effects of such a breakup would hit the broader ecosystem hard. Mozilla’s CFO has warned that barring Google from revenue-sharing could kill Firefox—hurting browser diversity and limiting consumer choice. Small and medium-sized businesses that rely on Google’s AI tools and ad platforms would lose access to essential growth engines. Even more absurdly, the DOJ is floating the idea of paying consumers to use Bing—an inferior product propped up by regulation, not innovation.
This isn’t how competition works. Forcing consumers to use less effective services doesn’t foster innovation—it punishes success and undermines choice. The DOJ’s proposed remedies favor entrenched competitors, not everyday Americans. Worse, they hand a strategic advantage to foreign rivals. China has been neck-and-neck with us in the critical AI race, and a disruption this substantial could spell a sure loss for America, dooming us to the fate of the innovation stagnation that the EU’s regulators have sanctioned. China doesn’t need to out-innovate us if we’re willing to kneecap our own champions.
Google may not be perfect, but it is an unparalleled force in global tech—one that invests billions in research, creates powerful tools accessible to millions, and helps maintain America’s technological edge. To destabilize it now is to jeopardize that edge when we need it most.
This fight isn’t just about one company. It’s about whether America continues to lead the world in technology—or lets bureaucracy, ideology, and misapplied antitrust theory sabotage that leadership. If we dismantle the engines of innovation under the illusion that we’re promoting fairness, we risk a slow descent into the same stagnation that has left Europe lagging and China looming.
Breaking up Google won’t serve consumers. It won’t spur better competition. It won’t make us safer. What it will do is signal to the world that the U.S. is willing to sacrifice progress on the altar of political posturing.
In this defining moment for American tech leadership, we must choose wisely. Let’s not win the battle against “big tech” only to lose the war for innovation.
