Techdirt has a story that is quite disturbing on many levels:
Forget banning TikTok, the Trump State Department just suggested it wants to basically ban China from the internet. Rather than promoting an open internet and the concept of openness, it appears that under this administration we're slamming the gates shut and setting up the Great American Firewall for the internet. Under the guise of what it calls the Clean Network to Safeguard America, last night Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a program that is full of vague statements, that could, in practice, fragment the internet.
This is incredibly disappointing on multiple levels. While other countries -- especially China, but also Iran and Russia -- have created their own fragmented internet, the US used to stand for an open internet across the globe. Indeed, for whatever complaints we had about the State Department during the Obama administration (and we had many complaints), its commitment to an open internet was very strong and meaningful. That's clearly now gone. The "Clean Network to Safeguard America" consists of five programs that can be summed up as "fuck you China."
So much for Internet openness.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @12:12PM (1 child)
I don't care if Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, Uber, and my employer block China, or Russia, or for that matter Luxembourg or Morocco. What I don't like is the idea that the US government enters the business of deciding what foreign websites are safe for American citizens to access.
The current US government is a monster that citizens have weak control over. I think expanding government censorship powers this way is a horrific idea, it's just one more step towards authoritarianism alongside all of the others from the past 30 years.
(Score: 2) by Marand on Sunday August 09 2020, @08:34PM
Oh, I agree completely. I just find it interesting that the Internet's at least halfway to the proposed split already, primarily because one party (China) can't play nicely with the rest of the world, blocking itself off from the rest of us while simultaneously being one of the primary sources of online aggression for everyone else.
Though for the sake of argument, one could reasonably justify another country's sanctions against China's networks due to its consistently bad behaviour. Basically "If you don't get your shit together and deal with this, we'll fix it for you by cutting you off". Nations already do this with trade, so it's not a particularly far-fetched idea that the concept could apply to bad actors online as well, especially when continuing to deal with a nation that has a tangible negative effect on individuals elsewhere like is the case for the constant flood of hack attempts from certain countries.
We've tried the "maybe if we play nice and turn the other cheek some good will get through and help its citizens" thing for decades and if anything it's gotten worse, not better, so maybe there is something to be said for a harsher approach where the rest of the internet goes "no, fuck you, we're done with your shit" to the egregiously bad actors like China and cuts them off at least partially to reduce their negative impact on everyone else.
Of course, that has nothing to do with why a US/China network split is being put forth right now, so I'm not saying any of that in defense of what's being proposed. Just a devil's advocate argument about the basic premise because I find discussing that more interesting than giving attention to this vague "I'm taking a hard stance on China! Elect me please!" bullshit.