The US Department of Justice say Google urged employees to discuss sensitive topics that would be auto-deleted in 24 hours, and the company could now face penalties for not preserving records needed for an antitrust suit.

Google have told government lawyers they were maintaining all records since November 2019.

Still, the government says Google employees used “off record” chats to discuss business and the lawsuit in the chat platform Google Hangouts, where users can choose to preserve or delete their conversations.

“Google’s daily destruction of written records prejudiced the United States by depriving it of a rich source of candid discussions between Google discussions, including likely trial witnesses,” DOJ attorney Kenneth Dintzer says.

Google “strongly” refute the allegations, saying, “Our teams have conscientiously worked for years to respond to inquiries and litigation.”