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from the what-you-don't-know-won't-hurt-us dept.
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: 4, Insightful) by stormreaver on Sunday August 09 2020, @01:09PM (2 children)
This seems like the exact thing we're doing: China is damaging the Internet, so we're routing around it.
(Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Sunday August 09 2020, @02:07PM
lol dude nice comment!
I love it when SN works and there are real ideas going back and forth.
(Score: 2) by dry on Sunday August 09 2020, @06:02PM
No, it seems more a plan to create an island consisting of 5 nations known as the 5 eyes. Tiktok as an example, it is not the whole company that MS may buy, but rather just the part in the 5 eyes, which means fragmentation with most of the world on the other side of the firewall.