Top reply > this is an excellent idea.

On what basis are you splitting these behemoths? It was easy to split Ma Bell on the basis of geography but how would you split Google? Into American, Asian and European arms perhaps? Even putting aside the thorny problem of splitting the global infrastructure, how soon before one of the Googlets swallows the remaining ones either through acquisition or by out-competing them?

And that's just Google. I can't even imagine how Facebook would be split up because a big draw of Facebook is being able to contact people no matter where they are. I don't need to register on a separate website if they move to a different country. I suppose its theoretically possible to force FB to spin off Whatsapp, Instagram etc into separate companies but you'll have the same problem of one of them making the others obsolete. That's exactly why Zuckerberg bought them in the first place - the fear that they would make FB obsolete.

Too often I see comments exhibiting very poor understanding of economics being showered with upvotes on HN. While I agree that these firms should be more tightly regulated, I do think this policy of breaking them up is misguided.