United States: The US Justice Department has accused Google of "systematically" erasing documents related to ongoing antitrust litigation and claimed the company disregarded a previous directive to preserve internal communications.

The DOJ claimed Google "falsely" claimed to have stopped the practice in 2019, but instead changed a feature on its company chat, according to a legal document filed Thursday in a federal court in Washington, D.C. Which automatically deletes what was denied. employee log.

According to DOJ attorney Kenneth Dintzer, "Google's daily destruction of written records prejudices the United States by depriving it of a rich source of candid conversations between Google executives, including potential trial witnesses."

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Google "did not preserve potentially relevant chats", which meant that for nearly four years after the antitrust case began, "Google systematically destroyed an entire category of written communications every 24 hours, Despite the government's claim that the company was required to do so by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

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The DOJ has asked the court to rule that Google violated a rule of civil procedure and has called for a hearing to decide how to punish the tech giant and learn more about its internal communications. Get the information.

A Google spokesperson said in a statement released Thursday that the company "strongly" rejects the claims and that its teams "have worked conscientiously to respond to inquiries and litigation."

The company has "produced over 4 million documents in this case alone, and millions more for regulators around the world," he continued.

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When the Justice Department declared that Google "is a monopoly under traditional antitrust principles" in the search engine sector and "must be stopped," an antitrust case was initiated against the company.

Google later criticized the lawsuit as "deeply flawed", saying it would "do nothing to help consumers," despite the government's claim that the company had manipulated its market share to harm smaller competitors. power was used.