We like and value Big Tech, so why are we so determined to do it down? – Telegraph.co.uk

It is an unfortunate characteristic of new industries that they tend quickly to become dominated by a small number of big players. This is particularly the case with tech, where powerful network effects are at work; the more people that use them, the more they attract others in search of compatibility. Monopoly is naturally occurring.

Yet to make the case for breakup, you have to demonstrate a positive benefit to consumers, competition, and innovation. This can only ever be supposition. It is not obvious, for instance, why separating Amazons servers business from its retail operation, or Facebook from Instagram, would help these objectives.

But please, no more pleading the national champions cause. An idea I naively imagined had been put to bed by the debilitating experience of state directed industrial strategy in the immediate postwar period is regrettably making something of a comeback, not just as a defence of Big Tech in an age of superpower conflict, but as a desirable economic goal in itself.

Even in Britain, we see evidence of such thinking. That the UK should jeopardise a decent trade deal with the EU for the sake of remaining free to dole out state aid to political obsessions andfavoured champions, as Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister's chief adviser, seems minded,is beyond ridiculous. Governments do not have a good record in backing winners.

Nor is it a good idea for governments to hitch their wagonsto any particular corporate interest; to deliberately favour one over another is not just corrupt, it alsodiscourages competition, and therefore innovation and diversity in the economy, ultimately making it less resilient.

Sometimes regulators need to step in to ensure markets remain open and honest. To maintain the publics trust, the tech giants must learn to self regulate and pay their taxes, or they will indeed end up going the same way as the railroad barons, AT&T, IBM and other targets of Americas penchant for taking down the economically overmighty.

With great power comes responsibility; most of the evidence is that Bezos, Zuckerberg et al have taken these lessons on board.

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We like and value Big Tech, so why are we so determined to do it down? - Telegraph.co.uk