[jplahn]

This is such a slippery slope it makes me sad anyone would even suggest breaking up a company based off their 'importance to society.' If the founders don't have the right to decide which direction the company should go, who gets to decide and what gives them more of a right than the founders? I don't know who would decide what the threshold is whereby your company is now too beneficial to society and you must relinquish control. And to what fields to we extend this policy? If Khan Academy is found to be ubiquitous with homeschooling and providing an immense benefit to students, should we strip the leadership of powers lest they teach something we don't think is correct? It's such a slippery slope.

As others have commented, if Google had been shown to be malicious with regards to their search results, then I'd say some regulation is in order. But to espouse that we should take control of the direction of their company due to the quality of their product (and the adoption of it, as a result) is, in my opinion, incredibly asinine.

Likewise, if we do break up the company, how would you propose to do that? Because what I think you're going to argue in favor of is treating some of the new pieces as a public utility and leaving other pieces as private corporations.

[learc83]

>This is such a slippery slope

Is all regulation a slippery slope? Did breaking up AT&T create a chain of events that led to a breakdown of corporate America?

>If Khan Academy is found to be ubiquitous with homeschooling and providing an immense benefit to students, should we strip the leadership of powers lest they teach something we don't think is correct?

If Khan Academy became so popular that nearly all schools closed down and 90% of students were educated solely through Khan Academy, then yes I think Khan Academy should be subject to some pretty tough regulation.

Let's say Disney becomes so popular that they take over every TV channel, every movie studio, and every newspaper. Are you OK with letting them have that kind of power because we are afraid of infringing on the rights of the owners?