Big Tech: Breaking Us Up Will Only Help China

Big Tech: Breaking Us Up Will Only Help China

5 years ago
Anonymous $9jpehmcKty

https://www.wired.com/story/big-tech-breaking-will-only-help-china/

Over the past week, both Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt made the same appeal to American nationalism, with differing degrees of subtlety: Breaking up Big Tech will only help China.

It’s a politically expedient plea as calls for regulating tech intensify amid growing concern about China’s tech prowess and an escalating US-China trade war. But the argument rests on the idea that what’s good for Facebook and Google is good for America. It also ignores how Silicon Valley is simultaneously seeking growth through partnerships with some of those same Chinese competitors, such as Google’s investment in JD.com and reported talks with Tencent to bring Google Cloud to China.