Is the US about to Split the Internet? (bbc.com)
- Reference: 0134520169
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/08/08/1623224/is-the-us-about-to-split-the-internet
- Source link: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53686390
> U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he wants a "clean" internet. What he means by that is he wants to remove Chinese influence, and Chinese companies, from the internet in the U.S.
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> But critics believe this will bolster [1]a worrying movement towards the breaking up of the global internet .
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> The so called "splinternet" is generally used when talking about China, and more recently Russia. The idea is that there's nothing inherent or pre-ordained about the internet being global. For governments that want to control what people see on the internet, it makes sense to take ownership of it. The Great Firewall of China is the best example of a nation putting up the internet equivalent of a wall around itself. You won't find a Google search engine or Facebook in China.
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> What people didn't expect was that the U.S. might follow China's lead.
They're reacting to U.S. president Trump's executive order to [2]block all transactions with TikTok's parent company (starting September 20) to "address the national emergency with respect to the information and communication technology supply chain." An opinion piece in the New York Times calls the move [3]a "foolish and dangerous edict" that's "deeply misguided and unproductive" which suggests that "the United States, like China, no longer believes in a global internet." In the BBC's article Alan Woodward, a security expert at the University of Surrey, calls the U.S. decision "shocking."
"The U.S. government has for a long time criticised other countries for controlling access to the internet⦠and now we see the Americans doing the same thing."
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53686390
[2] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/08/07/0153244/tiktok-ban-trump-will-prohibit-transactions-with-bytedance-beginning-september-20
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/07/opinion/tiktok-wechat-china-trump-executive-order.html
Oh well. (Score:2)
The internet was fun while it lasted. Guess we'll go back to stupid tribal wars thanks to nationalist fools.
Re: (Score:2)
Of course. As we all know since the advent of the internet there have been absolutley no wars whatsoever.
Until of course China implimented the great firewall in the 90s. Those nationalist fools!
Re: (Score:2)
Strange how certain high-ranking US officials are also the first to complain when other powerful organisations, such as the EU, attempt to reign in US companies that are doing much the same thing in terms of harvesting data without good security and privacy controls, attempting to control critical infrastructure, being subject to secret interventions by their host government that may compromise the security of their customers, etc.
How many days is it since the EU-US Privacy Shield was struck down in the Eur
Bound to happen (Score:2)
Not a fan of this idea.. but always thought it was bound to happen. Where we "saved" the Internet from commercial entities doing this by passing net-neutrality laws, there's nothing that protects it from governments.
What's the future? Meshing Wi-Fi routers?
Trump and his henchmen (Score:1)
are no Americans. "...and now we see the Americans doing the same thing."
ICANN (Score:2)
So, explain to me why giving up US control of ICANN was a good idea?
Nothing new (Score:1)
As opposed to the other powers that have already done so?
To a certain extent (Score:4, Insightful)
This has already been happening for years.
What's the first thing you do when you want to put something on the internet? Put it behind a firewall and geo-block/ip-block China, Russia, and Brazil.
This decision will absolutely impact mega corps, but everyone else is going to be like... "eh..."
Re: (Score:2)
> This has already been happening for years.
> What's the first thing you do when you want to put something on the internet? Put it behind a firewall and geo-block/ip-block China, Russia, and Brazil.
> This decision will absolutely impact mega corps, but everyone else is going to be like... "eh..."
More like "Oh, god, here Trump goes again, whining about how he had to do this because of what a victim he is ... honey? ... where's that box of ear plugs??"