'Imbalance of power' between big tech and sovereign nations

The head of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has described Australia’s proposed regulation of big tech platforms as 'sensible' and suggested the UK should follow a similar path.

Speaking to the BBC's media editor Amol Rajan, Dr Andrea Coscelli said the dominance of Facebook and Google in the advertising world was also a problem.

Google and Facebook have faced a number of actions from competition and other regulators in the past.

Both technology giants were approached for comment by BBC News.

A Facebook spokesman said its platform "gives millions of people and businesses in the UK the opportunity to connect and share."

He added: "In online advertising itself, we face significant competition from the likes of Google, Apple, Snap, Twitter and Amazon, as well as new entrants like TikTok, which keeps us on our toes."