China’s richest man lashed out at two of the country’s biggest tech giants for fanning online vitriol targeting him earlier this year and instigating a price war that wiped out tens of billions of market value for his bottled-water empire.

At an event in Jiangxi province earlier this month, Zhong Shanshan, the founder of Nongfu Spring Co., accused online budget shopping platform PDD Holdings Inc. of disrupting a pricing system it has worked hard to uphold. “The price system like Pinduoduo’s does great harm to Chinese brands and industries,” Zhong said, according to local media reports.

The next day at another event, Zhong demanded an apology from Zhang Yiming, founder of TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd., for tolerating online trolls that wrongfully pitted him against the late founder of rival company Hangzhou Wahaha Group Co. in online posts. He also criticized the company’s algorithm for amplifying the negative publicity around him.

“I hope Mr Zhang Yiming, Douyin, Toutiao and and all the media that have hurt me personally with rumors will apologize,” he said. “I am waiting for your sincere apology! I’m waiting.”

Douyin and Toutiao are social media companies owned by ByteDance.

Zhong’s unexpected outburst comes after he has faced a series of public relations challenges for much of the year. He first came under fire after the February death of Zong Qinghou, the founder of key rival Hangzhou Wahaha, with China’s online army of nationalist citizens drawing unfavorable comparisons for everything from Nongfu Spring’s water quality and packaging to Zhong’s business tactics.

The fallout saw Nongfu’s shares take a battering, which lost the company more than $20 billion in market capitalization since the beginning of the year and cost Zhong his seat atop China’s rich list in August. He has since recovered his position as the nation’s wealthiest person with a net worth of $52.2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Read More: China’s Two Richest People Lose Billions in Consumer Stock Rout

In videos circulating on Chinese social media, Zhong even criticized the Chinese government “for negligence” for allowing ecommerce platforms to foster the low-pricing trend among companies and consumers.

Brutal price wars have erupted among consumer brands over the past two years in efforts to attract budget-conscious Chinese consumers. Businesses from car makers to chain restaurants have engaged in price-cutting battles, prompting even Nongfu to release a new cheaper bottled water amid fierce competition. In August, Nongfu posted the slowest half-year profit growth since its listing in 2020, dragged down by the performance of its drinking-water products.

As one of the older generation of self-made billionaires who made their fortune from more traditional sectors like manufacturing, Zhong has always been dismissive of the internet industry. The harm caused by people using science and technology is more vicious than that caused by ordinary people, Zhong said earlier this month, in criticism of how tech firms use algorithms to tailor the information users can see. He has also expressed his scorn of businesses that sell their products via livestreaming, calling them companies with no roots. “I will never do that,” he said.

Justice department to recommend to judge in illegal monopoly case that Alphabet should offload what is a significant revenue driver for Google

Google could be ordered to sell its Chrome internet browser after a federal judge found the company has an “illegal monopoly” over search.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) plans to ask the judge to force Alphabet’s Google to sell its Chrome internet browser, Bloomberg reported on Monday night.

If the judge accepts the recommendation, it would be one of the most aggressive attacks on a big technology company by the US government.

Judge Amit P Mehta ruled in August that Google, which handles about 90 per cent of the world’s internet searches, exploited its market-leading position to exclude competitors. Mehta has scheduled a trial on remedy proposals for April.

Google’s Chrome browser helps the company control how people view the internet and what ads they see. The browser typically uses Google search and gathers information to help Google offer more targeted advertising.

The browser is a significant revenue driver for Google. Despite an initial dip on the report that it could be asked to sell Chrome, Alphabet’s shares bounced back on Tuesday and closed up $2.78, or 1.6 per cent, at $179.58 in New York.

Anti-trust officials will also recommend that Google give websites more options to prevent their content from being used by Google’s artificial intelligence products, Bloomberg reported. Google displays artificial intelligence-based answers at the top of its search pages, labelled “AI Overviews.” Meanwhile, Google could be required to license the results and data from its search engine.

The DoJ declined to comment.

Lee-Anne Mulholland, vice-president of Google Regulatory Affairs, said that the DoJ was pushing a “radical agenda that goes far beyond the legal issues in this case,” and would harm consumers.

The company plans to appeal once Mehta makes a final ruling, which he is likely to do by August 2025.

Alternative potential remedies could include ending exclusive agreements where Google pays billions of dollars annually to Apple and other companies to remain the default search engine on tablets and smartphones. Another option is that the judge could consider asking Google to divest other parts of its business, such as its Android operating system.

Tencent Holdings 700 -1.34%decrease; red down pointing triangle plans to set up its third internet data center in Indonesia, as the Chinese tech giant furthers its partnership with GoTo Group and Alibaba Group 9988 -0.33%decrease; red down pointing triangle to develop cloud infrastructure and train local talent in the country.

Indonesian technology company GoTo unveiled the new agreements with Tencent and Alibaba on Sunday at the Indonesia-China Business Forum in Beijing. This comes on the back of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s state visit to China over the weekend, where he said that more than $10 billion worth of investment agreements between the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and top Chinese companies would be signed.