A Toronto-based video platform has joined governments and regulators in accusing one of the world’s largest technology companies, Google, of using its market power to improperly squeeze out competitors.
Rumble, which launched in 2013 with an emphasis on pet and baby videos but which has more recently courted conservatives angered by labelling and censoring of posts on other social media apps, sued Google LLC this week, accusing the search giant of unfairly favouring its YouTube video platform.
In the lawsuit, Rumble alleges Google engaged in practices including “rigging its search algorithms purposefully and unlawfully to always give preference to Google’s YouTube video-sharing platform over Rumble (and other platforms) in Google search results,” according to a document filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
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The filing says a Google search for online videos even listed links to YouTube as the first results in a search that specified Rumble: “dog videos on rumble.”
The Canadian firm is seeking damages it claims it has sustained “and continues to sustain as a proximate result of Google’s antitrust violations.” Rumble is also seeking “injunctive relief to prevent Google from continuing unlawfully to maintain its monopoly in the relevant market — online video-sharing platforms— through anticompetitive and exclusionary practices.”
more at financialpost.com
