Tech Titans or Tyrants: Should the U.S. Government Break Up Big Tech?

Open to Debate

News, Society & Culture, Education

4.5 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Has Big Tech become too powerful? Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft shape how we shop, communicate, and consume information. But has their dominance gone too far? Advocates argue these firms are monopolies that harm competition, exploit consumer data, and wield disproportionate influence over public discourse. Structural reforms would restore fairness and innovation. But critics warn that breakups could damage user experience, slow innovation, and disrupt integrated ecosystems people rely on. Now we debate: Should the U.S. Government Break Up Big Tech? Arguing Yes: Bharat Ramamurti, Founder of The Bully Pulpit; Former Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Matt Stoller, Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project Arguing No: Geoffrey A. Manne, President and Founder of the International Center for Law & Economics Jennifer Huddleston, Senior Fellow in Technology Policy at the Cato Institute Emmy award-winning journalist John Donvan moderates This debate was produced in partnership with the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, as part of The Hopkins Forum series. It was recorded in front of a live audience on Thursday, December 4, 2025 at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center. Visit OpentoDebate.org to watch more insightful debates. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed on our curated weekly debates, dynamic live events, and educational initiatives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Open to Debate. I'm John Donvan, and today a debate on whether to break up big tech.
0:09.6	We're here at the beautiful Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in front of a live audience at this academic hub, this public square.
0:16.3	This is our fourth installment of the Hopkins Forum, which is a partnership between Open to Debate and the Stavros-Niarchos Foundation,
0:23.4	SNF, Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins. So the question up for debate, tech titans or tyrants, should the U.S.
0:29.1	government break up big tech? By big tech, we're referring to those companies that have come into existence
0:34.3	during the lifetimes of most of us in attendance here, companies that have had enormous impact on how we live and function and communicate and
0:41.1	connect for better or for worse. The list includes Google, meta, Amazon, Microsoft, a lot of
0:48.2	others, companies that we interact with daily and also directly. Is there bigness part of why they are so successful? Or is there
0:56.9	bigness, on the other hand, something to be very concerned about? And if so, what about breaking them
1:02.2	apart? What would be the impact on the consumer, on innovation, on the whole landscape of
1:08.3	capitalism? These are the questions we're going to be getting into with four superbly qualified debaters.
1:12.8	Please welcome them to the stage now, and let's meet them.
1:18.5	On the side that is arguing that, yes, we should break up big tech.
1:22.3	I first want to welcome Matt Stoller.
1:24.2	Matt is the research director at the American Economic Liberties Project. Matt
1:28.2	argues that America is in a, quote, monopoly crisis, and he writes about it in his
1:33.3	substack titled Big. Matt Politico once called you Washington's angriest progressive. I just
1:40.9	want to check. How are you doing today? I'd like to answer that with a glare.
1:46.6	Joining that is Barat Ramamerti. Barat was deputy director of the National Economic Council and was
1:51.5	an architect of the Biden antitrust agenda. He just started a substack called the bully pulpit.
1:57.3	Teddy Roosevelt used the word bully pulpit, but by bully, he didn't mean somebody
2:01.0	beating people up. He meant, great, excellent, wonderful. How do you mean it? Exactly the same way.
	...

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