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Involuntary breakup of IT giants expected in coming years, says special envoy

Specifically, this may pertain to Facebook breaking up into several companies, the envoy said

MOSCOW, April 19. /TASS/. The forced break-up of IT giants is predicted to take place in several coming years, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation on Digital and Technological Development Dmitry Peskov said on Monday at a TASS press conference.

"We expect and forecast antimonopoly procedures in large numbers and the break-up of the biggest technology platforms in the US, China and Russia," Peskov noted. "The demerger of IT giants is our major forecast for the next several years," he said.

Specifically, this may pertain to Facebook breaking up into several companies, the envoy said.

"This involuntary split of Facebook into several companies is obviously necessary <...> under modified antitrust legislation and not merely of the United States. A majority of countries is proactively working on establishing a new platform antimonopoly laws," Peskov said.

"This definitely refers to the biggest Russian IT companies like Yandex, Sberbank, Mail.ru, since they will be building up their own ecosystems; I call them ‘black hole type’ ecosystems, meaning that they gather all the information as business owners from the surrounding world but release nothing outside, so these ‘black hole type platforms’ will definitely require very tough government regulation, which also includes enforcement," he added.

"It is important to understand that actual ecosystems are communities built in particular on new consolidating economies. A whole range of experiments is underway now to create special digital currencies for these ecosystems, and so on. They are essentially clusters or islands or archipelagoes inside the economy that connect with each other and form a certain sustainable economy," founder of the Global Education Futures initiative Pavel Luksha added.