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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 09 2020, @03:01PM
Nutjobs making demands on ISP's since the beginning. Most of the time, they are just quietly ignored. The nuts declare victory, but nothing actually changes.
But now SO much backbone has been aggregated under just a few large companies, that stupidity like this could actually happen. The DOJ is busy trying to dismantle California civil rights legislation, when it really should be looking at breaking up Comcast, Centurylink etc. and restoring common cairrage.
SSDD.