This is how the Internet dies [work in progress]

Below is the script of the intro to my upcoming Splinternet video. Hope you enjoy.

It is 9:07 PM Beijing time, September 14, 1987. Researchers at the Institute for Computer Science in China, have just sent the very first email from a communist country to their colleagues at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany. https://qz.com/1918996/techno-nationalism-is-shaping-the-future-of-your-internet/

The message read: “Across the Great Wall, we can reach every corner of the world.”

It marked the beginning of an Information revolution.

It was a sign of hope that despite our differences and grievances, we could eventually be united by open technology whose language is spoken by all nations of the globe.

By 1994, China established its first cable connection to the world wide web with Stanford’s Linear Accelerator Center and China’s connection to the Internet was forever cemented. https://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/23/world/asia/china-internet-20th-anniversary/index.html

Today, the bygone hopes and dreams of a united Internet are nothing more than broken promises. The Chinese government has erected the Great Firewall, barring all of its citizens from unrestricted access to the Internet.

The newly formed Cyber Administration demands that all citizen’s posts, comments and searches are tied to their real life identities. In the effort to erase online anonymity, VPN services and Tor were made illegal in the country, with companies like Apple happily obliging with the crackdown on online freedoms. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-walls-are-closing-in-chinafinds-new-ways-to-tighten-internet-controls/2017/09/26/2e0d3562-9ee6-11e7-b2a7-bc70b6f98089_story.html

With privacy out of the way, censorship was an immediate next step. Anyone who sets up a private chat group in China, is legally responsible for all of its content. Internet companies are required to monitor and rate the conduct of online users, assigning them scores following the Communist Party line. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-walls-are-closing-in-chinafinds-new-ways-to-tighten-internet-controls/2017/09/26/2e0d3562-9ee6-11e7-b2a7-bc70b6f98089_story.html

Government censors will ban and remove any app or content that previous censorship mechanisms wouldn’t take care off.  https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/9/20907228/apple-quartz-app-store-china-removal-hong-kong-protests-censorship

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/business/media/new-york-times-apps-apple-china.html?

All foreign social media apps are banned in the country of more than a billion people, who are isolated by the Great Firewall to only using services from government-approved Chinese companies.  https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/13/the-splinternet-is-already-here/

All of these efforts have splintered a parallel Internet reality. One that runs consequently with the global Internet, but doesn’t reflect it in any shape or form. Chinese services do not allow foreign information to flow freely into China. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-10/russia-internet-isolation-accelerates-after-ukraine-invasionAnd because everyone in China can only use local services, there is no direct line of communication between users in China with the rest of the world.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/the-walls-are-closing-in-chinafinds-new-ways-to-tighten-internet-controls/2017/09/26/2e0d3562-9ee6-11e7-b2a7-bc70b6f98089_story.html

The reality is, China isn’t the only government that creates its own version of the digital reality. All major nations and even corporations are more invested in curating their versions of the Internet under the disguise of digital sovereignty and algorithmic personalization. https://fortune.com/2022/03/22/russia-war-ukraine-great-firewall-splinternet-internet/

https://techonomy.com/welcome-to-the-splinternet/

This is why academics are warning that the days of the Internet as a global network of all networks is dying. What will replace it is a world of coexisting Internets that no longer talk to each other. This cyber-balkanization will create a multi-verse of national internets and corporate walled gardens, that experts refer to as the Splintertnet. https://www.economist.com/briefing/2010/09/02/a-virtual-counter-revolution

https://fortune.com/2022/03/22/russia-war-ukraine-great-firewall-splinternet-internet/