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THIS was a year in which governments went head-to-head with big tech firms. As we went to press, US regulators were suing Facebook over its historic acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, asking the courts to consider breaking up the company.

An executive order signed by President Donald Trump in August, banning the use of Chinese-owned apps WeChat and TikTok, has also led to a break up – TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is working on a deal to sell its US operations to Walmart and Oracle.

Across the Atlantic, the UK government also clashed with a Chinese tech company, banning telecommunications giant Huawei from providing equipment for its 5G network and forcing UK mobile providers to strip out any existing Huawei equipment by 2027. The decision followed a US ban in August on supplying chip technology to Huawei, amid claims the firm could be used by the Chinese government for spying.

Meanwhile, in Australia, the government proposed laws that would require firms such as Facebook and Google to compensate media outlets whose news content is shared on the platforms of the online giants. In response, Facebook said it would ban users in Australia from sharing news content, while Google ran local advertisements warning that its free services could be at risk.