#Google

#Google

The US Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. 's Google misled advertisers that place ads on their websites, according to people familiar with the matter.

But last week, Google contradicted this stance in a court filing. The tech giant acknowledged that "the open web is already in rapid decline." In a pre-trial filing, Google reacted to the US Department of Justice's suggestion to sell off its advertising division. Google maintained that it would only hasten the downfall of the open web, an environment that a majority of publishers depend on for display advertising revenue.

Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, said in May that web publishing is not dying. Nick Fox, VP of Search at Google, said in May that the web is thriving. But in a court document filed by Google on late Friday, Google's lawyers wrote, "The fact is that today, the open web is already in rapid decline."

"This decision misunderstands how our products work, and we will appeal it," Google spokesman Jose Castaneda said Thursday. "Our privacy tools give people control over their data, and when they turn off personalization, we honor that choice."