STAND-OFFS between nations are nothing new. But a very public spat between a government and a commercial company, in which each accused the other of taking citizens hostage and threatened sanctions, certainly seemed novel when it broke out this February. This was the case of Facebook versus Australia, in which the tech giant briefly cut off access to some parts of the web through its platform for its 17 million Australian users, in response to a proposed law that would force it to pay for linking to news stories. Opinions are still divided on the rights and wrongs - but this skirmish looks like just a foretaste of bigger battles to come. Across the world, governments are concluding that tech giants such as Facebook and Google exercise too much power and are undermining the public good by allowing hate speech and misinformation to proliferate. Not only in Australia, but also in the UK, the US, the EU and elsewhere, plans are afoot to bring them to heel.
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