Earlier quoted context omitted.
Monopoly status is legally irrelevant (in direct terms) when it comes to political activity. Now, it's true that (especially natural) monopoly status is often a justification for laws imposing common carrier rules, but such laws have not been adopted which apply to Google in the activity in question , whether or not such would be a desirable policy, so their alleged monopoly status isn't indirectly relevant that way,…
In-kind political favors by companies is expressly illegal under FEC regulations. Google propping up a candidate or suppressing another is effectively campaign contributions (or suppression) worth millions of dollars by Google to certain candidates, in violation of FEC regulations. The monopoly status has weight in such cases, as it can be construed as illegal electioneering, given Google's control over speech discov…
Yes, but monopoly status is irrelevant to that. It's as illegal from a non-monopoly as a monopoly and an act which legally isn't an in-kind contribution by a non-monopoly isn't transformed into one when done by a monopoly.
And policies which are not targeted for or against a particular candidate that happen to affect a candidate differently are not, even presumptively, in-kind contributions under the law—there is no “disparate impact” rule for political content as there is for, e.g., racial discrimination in employment.