Rumblings about the role of Big Tech in American society have coalesced into a storm long coming, with revelations that the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are contemplating sweeping antitrust investigations of Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple. WIRED Opinion About Zachary Karabell is a WIRED contributor and president of River Twice Research. At any point in the past few years, these companies could have acted preemptively to head off the storm.

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