News analysis

Writing's on the wall but big tech break-up won't be easy

The laws themselves need to be tweaked to deal with the new data-based giants

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Several hours of a hearing of the United States House antitrust subcommittee with four of the tech world's most powerful chief executives ended on Tuesday with sceptical congressmen and women seemingly convinced the tech giants should be broken up.

The hearing featured occasionally surreal exchanges between Mr Sundar Pichai of Google, Mr Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Mr Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Mr Tim Cook of Apple.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 31, 2020, with the headline Writing's on the wall but big tech break-up won't be easy. Subscribe