INTERNET
FEATURE
China is increasingly censoring outside content through “the Great Firewall.” Other nations such as India and Russia are increasing government censorship control and playing with the idea of completely isolated state-run Internet systems. The future of a global Internet has become uncertain—and with even Western countries struggling with reforms such as Net Neutrality and increases in proprietary Internet platforms, the free and open World Wide Web we take for granted may soon shatter into irreparable fragments.
INTERNET
FEATURE
China is increasingly censoring outside content through “the Great Firewall.” Other nations such as India and Russia are increasing government censorship control and playing with the idea of completely isolated state-run Internet systems. The future of a global Internet has become uncertain—and with even Western countries struggling with reforms such as Net Neutrality and increases in proprietary Internet platforms, the free and open World Wide Web we take for granted may soon shatter into irreparable fragments.
But China is hardly the only one.
India has recently put forward a proposal that would allow Indian officials to demand search engines and social media websites such as Facebook, Google, and TikTok to remove posts they deem libelous, deceptive, or invasive of privacy. Perhaps more importantly, the proposal postulates that it would be the role of the internet companies to build automated screening tools to protect Indians from seeing content deemed unlawful, a request that’s logistically near impossible to fulfill for most companies.
Perhaps most worrisome of all is Russia, who plans to take Internet censorship one step further by completely cutting itself off from the World Wide Web. Indeed, a new law proposed in December would require the country’s Internet service providers to completely back the country’s independent Internet system Runet, as well as reroute all Internet traffic through Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media regulator, thereby effectively creating a self-sustaining Internet bubble.
However, while a completely isolated state-run Internet may seem plausible in theory, the infrastructure that would need to be built and employed—Internet cables, satellite systems, and a number of other technologies the World Wide Web currently relies on to run—would require an astronomical amount of funding. And the likelihood that institutions that rely heavily on web-based systems—such as banking, aviation, and hospitals—could potentially experience disastrous systems failures would become much too risky.
Ultimately, while countries such as China, India, and Russia may continue to play with the idea of closing themselves off from the global Internet, doing so will most likely result in cost and labor-intensive efforts that will likely not pay off in the end. The sheer prevalence and scale of the World Wide Web aided by advancing technologies such as 5G and blockchain, will make it increasingly difficult and costly for these nations to maintain the divide.
Ana C. Rold is the Founder and Publisher of Diplomatic Courier. Rold teaches political science courses at Northeastern University
and is the Host of The World in 2050–A Forum About Our Future. To engage with her on this article follow her on Twitter @ACRold.