The hours-long outage of Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram shows that the world should not rely on a few large companies, the European Commission believes.
“We need alternatives and choices in the tech market,” tweets European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager.
The problems of Facebook and some other of its apps Monday night affected billions of users. Some turned to competitors such as Twitter and Signal.
Vestager, who has been trying for years to curb the power of the large internet companies known as Big Tech, sees her right underlined. Too much dependence on a few giants makes people vulnerable, she thinks. “Whoever they are.”
The Danish competition chief of the commission wants users to have more choice. That is exactly what she has in mind with the proposals she made last year, she says. The European Parliament and EU countries are currently discussing these.