There are increasing signals that DC is preparing to crack down on big tech. The ball is already rolling via bills in progress. “The results could bring big changes to some of the industry’s best-known products, from Amazon Prime and Google’s search results to Apple’s App Store and Facebook’s Messenger and Instagram. LinkedIn and Microsoft Office could even feel the bite.” Then there are the hires by Biden administration that have included many critics of the runaway power of big tech. The latest move was the appointment of a new FCC chair. “By naming tech critic Lina Khan to chair the Federal Trade Commission Tuesday, the White House made clear it is dead serious about antitrust enforcement and other measures to rein in Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon.” But reining in big tech will be less like governing corporations and more like negotiating with superpowers. It’s not just that the companies are huge financially and in terms of population, it’s that they have made themselves vital in some key ways. And the government knows that. Here’s an example from TechCrunch. Biden admin will share more info with online platforms on ‘front lines’ of domestic terror fight. From the Biden administration: “The widespread availability of domestic terrorist recruitment material online is a national security threat whose front lines are overwhelmingly private-sector online platforms, and we are committed to informing more effectively the escalating efforts by those platforms to secure those front lines.” The big platforms created the opportunity for these threats to emerge and now they’re being recruited to stem the tide because they’re the only ones in a position to do so. Big tech is too big, but breaking up is gonna be hard to do.