It says "50 US States and Territories." The most natural parsing is that 50 entities are investigating, and some of those entities are states and some are territories. It's possible to parse it as saying all 50 states as well as (some) territories, although this phrasing would be awkward. If the former parsing is correct, then the number of states is less than 50, with the remainder being territories.
For the life of me, I cannot find anything in the article which lets me figure out who is actually investigating.
The confusion is that there are 50 states, and generally Americans do not know how many US territories there are. So "50 states" is understood as "all states," even though it could be 35 states and 15 territories for all we know.
The 50 states part carries so much weight that one's mind may interpret it as "50 US States and X territories" with an implied X.
>A bipartisan coalition of 48 states along with Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia said Monday it is investigating whether Google’s search and advertising business is engaged in monopolistic behavior.
>California and Alabama are the two states that haven’t joined an investigation into Google’s market dominance.
Technically says 50 States and Territories, but I can’t read past that because of the paywall so there’s maybe up to 5 territories which are also investigating and maybe up to 5 US States which are not investigating at all.
Or alternatively, all US States really are investigating and it was purely an editorial decision to say “50 States and territories”. I’m open to that possibility because I’m cynical about this particular source’s writing and editorial style and wouldn’t put it past them even when they have the facts of the matter largely correct. But, paywall.
Right now, the article doesn't specify which states and/or territories they are. It says it, "is a developing story and will be updated," so the page may list them in the future.
Thanks mate. 50 State-level governments no matter what the exact mix is, makes this a huge story.
I would be interested to see what the State omissions are, if any, more out of morbid curiosity than anything because you don’t often see any 50 States and/or Territories do anything in concert like this.
