[whacko_quacko]

I agree, that the EU breaking up the tech giants is insane, but I don't think that banning them is much better. How would you enforce this? I don't want a big firewall like china has.

I'd argue for open protocols that allow exporting your data and switching services instead. Make export capabilities a requirement akin to data protection laws, and you have defanged the monopolistic nature of tech. Ideally also force interoperability between services, but that's a whole other can of worms.

This is on paper obviously much harder than just banning something, because you would have to define such exchange protocols, but it has a chance of success. One could start with certain industries, like social media, and in some cases build on existing work, like the AT or ActivityPub protocols.

[harimau777]

I don't know if this is a good idea, but could you enforce it at the level of corporations? Similar to how, at various times, pirating software like Photoshop was endemic for non-professional use, but Adobe mostly didn't worry about it as long as they could make sure that companies were buying licenses.

[whacko_quacko]

If you can find such a "choke point" that makes it relatively easy to enforce, then maybe. But I suspect that won't work for certain products especially if they're B2C, and still by only regulating the supply side without actually changing anything about the demand you don't really get good outcomes

[DSingularity]

You can enforce it if you provide alternatives. The problem is they don’t want to do that part.

[whacko_quacko]

Who is "they"? The government is generally not in the business of developing software

But I have to agree that actual alternatives are a prerequisite for changing anything about the dominance of the US tech sector