What does breaking up Big Tech really mean?

Over the past four or five years, scholars, politicians, and public advocates have begun to push a new idea of what antitrust policy should be, arguing that we need to move away from a narrow focus on consumer welfare—which in practice has usually meant a focus on prices—toward consideration of a much wider range of possible harms from companies’ exercise of market power: damage to suppliers, workers, competitors, customer choice, and even the political system as a whole. They’ve done so, not surprisingly, with Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Alphabet/Google (the Big Four) squarely in mind. But what exactly would reining in Big Tech’s power look like? Short answer: It depends very much on which company you’re going after. Apple wouldn’t seem to have that much to worry about from increasing antitrust pressures. Some argue that Amazon should be required to spin off Marketplace, while others have suggested that tough regulations be imposed on how it manages the site. Under the new antitrust model, Google’s sheer reach makes it a good target. Facebook's lack of transparency about the way it uses customer data has made it notorious.