Once the heroes, they are now the villains. In just a couple of decades big tech has gone from being the cool face of a sleeker and morally better future to power hungry autocrats that manipulate personal lives, remove privacy, undermine mental health, and crush competition. There is a widespread feeling in national governments, and the public as a whole that they have to be stopped. But now they are so powerful, Apple alone has a value that exceeds the GDP of India, can this be achieved?
Could punitive taxation and regulation control their excesses? Or would we be best to follow the calls of some in the US, like Elizabeth Warren, to break them up? Then again are web and social media essential services that would be better run by government? After all most nations, including Britain, France, Germany, and Japan, have their public broadcasters, should they not also have national web services? Not the BBC but the BWC perhaps?