In the twentieth century, government regulation was used to encourage corporations to provide these sort of quasi-public services alongside their more profitabl

In the twentieth century, government regulation was used to encourage corporations to provide these sort of quasi-public services alongside their more profitable lines of business, and to maintain them even when times where hard. In the late 2000s, it seemed that the new wave of tech giants had a deliberate strategy of voluntarily providing similar services in order to demonstrate that they could be responsible stewards without being forced to do so. A stroke of genius, people said, which meant that they could avoid sclerosing regulation, allowing them to remain nimble in the long run. But that has completely broken down over the past decade. Google left non-core services to rot. Twitter trashed the digital town square. Facebook set people against each other to maximise engagement. We should remember this for the next time an industry claims to be able to self-regulate. They can't - at least, not for long, not if there's a chance to make $100bn rather than just $99bn.