The Hopkins Forum - Tech Titans or Tyrants: Should the U.S. Government Break Up Big Tech?

This debate was produced in partnership with the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

Topics: Tech, Politics

Release Date: Friday, December 12, 2025 at 10am EST

Has Big Tech become too powerful?

From social media platforms and e-commerce giants to cloud computing and AI, tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft wield unprecedented influence over our economy, democracy, and daily lives. The government is taking notice, with the Department of Justice and FTC pursuing landmark antitrust actions and bipartisan support building for breaking up tech giants. Advocates argue these firms are monopolies that stifle competition and innovation, harm consumers through data exploitation, abuse their market dominance, and wield outsized influence over public discourse. Structural separation, such as forcing Google to divest YouTube or Amazon to spin off AWS, would restore fairness. Others argue that breaking them up would undermine innovation and downgrade the user experience, which benefits from integrated ecosystems. It would serve as a blunt instrument when smarter regulation or self-governance could suffice. These measures could lead to unintended consequences for national security, critical infrastructure, and the broader economy.

As these tech companies grow their influence while under public scrutiny, we debate the question: Should the U.S. Government Break Up Big Tech?

This debate was produced in partnership with the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University on Thursday, December 4, 2025, at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center.

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

MODERATOR-IN-CHIEF:

• John Donvan: Emmy award-winning journalist

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

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.

Open to Debate, the leading nonpartisan media platform steering the national conversation around the art of debate and the importance of free speech, has partnered with the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University to hold a flagship series of live debates in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore called “The Hopkins Forum: A Debate Series from the Johns Hopkins University and Open to Debate.”