Google When the Department of Justice urged the forced sale of Google Chrome, it may have cracked open a new front in the cybersecurity debate. The courtroom argument is clear: Google's stranglehold on search, aided by Chrome's ubiquity, harms competition. But what's far less examined is this: what happens to digital security when a core pillar of the internet is splintered? At stake is more than corporate market share because Chrome isn't merely a browser. It's an active, adaptive security platform. In 2024 alone, Google reported blocking more than five billion bad ads and suspending almost 40 million advertiser accounts that were engaged in fraudulent behaviour. I ts integration with Android and Gmail creates a layered defence ecosystem, not just for Google's benefit but for the broader public internet. If Chrome is peeled away and spun out to a new owner, that cohesion may erode. On one hand, breaking up Google could diversify the ecosystem – and that's not nothing. Monocultures are brittle.