The debate about Big Tech is rushing headlong into a ditch. The solutionist tech industry seems to think it can do little wrong, while its reductionist critics believe it can do little right.

At one end of the debate stands Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, who talks about the social media company’s mission to bring people together and build communities as though this could only be a good thing. At the other are officials like Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner, who last week accused tech companies of exploiting our data, stifling competition and undermining democracy.

Relations between the tech industry and governments are only likely to deteriorate as legislators continue to probe the extent of foreign manipulation of elections on social media platforms. Throw in the debate over some tech companies’ tax minimisation strategies, competition policy and end-to-end encryption and we are stirring up an increasingly noxious brew.