Silicon Valley once sold a very strange idea with great success: by doing what was best for itself, it would do what was best for everyone.

The idea had a long and influential life, elevating figures like Steve Jobs into cultural icons. Over the past year, though, it has reached a breaking point. The internet, we are now told, is turning people into Nazis, scaring the hell out of children, and spreading dangerous lies. Meanwhile, the four biggest tech firms boast a combined valuation of more than three trillion dollars. Companies that claim to be in the business of making the world a better place are doing good business — by making the world worse.

This realization has produced a chorus of calls for tech regulation in the United States. So long as Silicon Valley was seen as humanity’s benefactor, many were content to leave it to its own devices. But as the damaging effects of those devices become clear, a growing number of American politicians seem willing to contemplate the possibility of regulating tech.