Changing My Mind on Tech Monopolies

When John Oliver did a segment on Last Week Tonight about tech monopolies a few years ago, I was quite hesitant about the "break up big tech" message. It seemed unrealistic and difficult to achieve to me.

I've fully changed my mind on this now – breaking up big tech companies, no matter how difficult (although there is sufficient relevant precedent) – is the only effective way to:

• Restore a healthy tech startup ecosystem, that isn't fully based on hype cycles around AI and cryptocurrency, and actually allows small, sustainable (tech) companies to sprout up and stick around.
• Create space for new online communities to thrive, like the way Tumblr felt before 2015, or all of the small self-hosted forums that used to be very popular at the start of the century.
• Undo some harmful legislation, like parts of the UK's Online Safety Act, which can only feasibly implemented in markets where there are just a few large companies that own most of an online space.

Not likely to happen anytime soon, but the changes in the EU so far have been great. Meta giving people the option to pay for Instagram to get an ad-free experience is an amazing thing (although it's more expensive than it has a right to be, I wonder how the European Commission feels about the pricing), and I hope to see more of that type of stuff.

Hopefully, the changes the EU are making will force big companies to also roll out those changes elsewhere. I also want access to alternative app stores and ad-free social media platforms!