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Russia’s attack on Ukraine is another reminder that the Internet is not a free universe dreamed of by the propagandists of the idea of a homogeneous, open to all and many digital global villages. Instead, we have Splinternet, a network that is divided into spheres of influence, the Balkans, and is slowly becoming a theater of military operations.
Scott Malcolmson, author of the 2016 book Splinternet, promotes this thesis in an essay published in the Observer.
According to him, the first blow to the idea of a common, open Internet was made today by Edward Snowden, a former NSA and CIA operative living in Russia, who revealed the scale of US intelligence surveillance of electronic communications. services. The documents provided by Snowden eventually shattered the illusion that many believe – the Internet is a place of boundless freedom, and everything here is solved only by private companies that love him. Freedom should have been valuable to them not only because of its objective ideological appeal, but also because building a business based on it means virtually unlimited access to a global market, Malcolmson writes.
The Internet is geopolitically important
The various ways in which the Internet is fragmented and carried by the global network of opportunities are well illustrated by the example of China. The Middle Kingdom has rejected the liberal concept of a network that has created the image of a new era of US communications. China has separated its citizens from the rest of the world associated with the Greater China Firewall. Russia is following in the footsteps of China, and many believe it is preparing to leave the global Internet and switch to RuNet only.
According to Malcolmson, the Internet has always been a platform for American self-satisfaction – and in a political sense – because it was to become a tool that the United States could use to colonize the future and monopolize the digital economy.
The political issue is the submarine cables that generally make the internet connection possible. Electronic equipment for telecommunications networks remains a political issue, as demonstrated by the trade war between the United States and China. The author of Splinternet claims that for most Internet users today, the satellites that allow the geolocation of mobile devices, which are the main interface of communication with the network, are political.
Increasing dependence of the free Internet on the state
Information sovereignty, which has become a hot topic in digital discussions in recent years, is now becoming the Internet’s growing dependence on states.
Online platforms and related technology companies, as well as their data centers, are now increasingly being held hostage by states that can decide more and more how and where their services will be provided.
According to Malcolmson, India is a good example, where the government of Narendra Modi should see technology companies on its side to allow it to operate relatively freely in the country. According to the journalist, India is the most important market for the new technology sector after China, the United States and the European Union. For many, Modi’s political will could mean “to be or not to be,” as in the case of India’s war on Chinese mobile apps last year, which was widely removed from local broadcasting due to political tensions between the two countries.
“Of course, there are many advantages to putting technology companies under the control of democratically elected governments. (…) However, the problem is that not all governments are democratic, and some may suddenly announce their course, as in the United States. recently shown. ”Malcolmson notes.
According to him, the effect of such behavior is that technology companies are more sensitive to political issues and are more willing to submit to any control attempts by governments.
Will the state accept free internet?
Malcolmson agrees – and the premise for completing this process, as in the United States and China, could be the establishment of nationalist spheres of influence that create separate and closed technological ecosystems in competition with each other. Similarly, the European Union or India – they want to be a market governed by their own regulations, sharing their privileges, creating their own spheres of influence, – says the journalist.
Where is Russia in all this? According to Malcolmson, the country ruled by Putin, which has cut off most Western digital services due to the Ukrainian occupation, is moving closer to China’s sphere of influence.
“It’s amazing that Sergei Brin, a native of Moscow, is a co-founder of Google in the United States, which now separates state media from Moscow on the Internet,” the author said.
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