Authoritarian states are increasingly shutting off or throttling access to the internet, creating separate spheres in a realm built on connection
China boasts of having the world’s largest population of internet users: 1.125 billion by the end of 2025, according to official figures. But as one joke has it, the Great Firewall – blocking not only politically sensitive material but also global tech firms such as Google and Meta – has produced what looks more like the world’s largest intranet.
Beijing is not an anomaly, but a pioneer. Its extraordinary investment in the apparatus of “cyber sovereignty” – others would call it censorship and repression – is guiding other authoritarian countries. A realm defined by connection is fragmenting not just from commercial greed and filter bubbles but due to state fiat, birthing the splinternet.
Continue reading...
Authoritarian states are increasingly shutting off or throttling access to the internet, creating separate spheres in a realm built on connectionChina boasts of having the world’s largest population of internet users:...
See more
