The internet was once viewed as a utopia where everyone was free to say whatever they liked, with only 'bad' countries regulating what was uploaded. Yet now from New Delhi to New York, leaders seem to be following Beijing's lead.
In the words of CNN, “India is building its own internet” or, more accurately, its own nationally focused applications and social media ecosystem. There’s a myriad of reasons as to why. First of all, following clashes between government forces and protesting farmers over the past few months, Indian authorities have increasingly clashed with American social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter, demanding they censor activist accounts on their networks. The government ended up shutting down the internet entirely in certain areas to try and curb the unrest. Then secondly, the border skirmish with China has also seen India ban hundreds of Chinese apps, including the international sensation TikTok.
Irrespective of the target country, the motivations are the same: India wants national sovereignty over its internet. Just such a position is held, somewhat ironically, by Beijing itself, which has previously called it “cyber sovereignty" – the idea that the internet within a certain country is not a liberal-free-for-all Wild West, as many have previously understood it, but is in fact subject to national laws and sovereignty. This has usually been associated with authoritarianism and censorship; hence its creation by China. However, as we can see by India’s embrace of the concept, the world’s attitude to the internet is changing. As geopolitics reconfigures itself and aspects of ‘globalization’ come under scrutiny, the dream of the internet as a libertarian ideal is closing down not just in the East, but in the West too.
www.rt.com
In the words of CNN, “India is building its own internet” or, more accurately, its own nationally focused applications and social media ecosystem. There’s a myriad of reasons as to why. First of all, following clashes between government forces and protesting farmers over the past few months, Indian authorities have increasingly clashed with American social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter, demanding they censor activist accounts on their networks. The government ended up shutting down the internet entirely in certain areas to try and curb the unrest. Then secondly, the border skirmish with China has also seen India ban hundreds of Chinese apps, including the international sensation TikTok.
Irrespective of the target country, the motivations are the same: India wants national sovereignty over its internet. Just such a position is held, somewhat ironically, by Beijing itself, which has previously called it “cyber sovereignty" – the idea that the internet within a certain country is not a liberal-free-for-all Wild West, as many have previously understood it, but is in fact subject to national laws and sovereignty. This has usually been associated with authoritarianism and censorship; hence its creation by China. However, as we can see by India’s embrace of the concept, the world’s attitude to the internet is changing. As geopolitics reconfigures itself and aspects of ‘globalization’ come under scrutiny, the dream of the internet as a libertarian ideal is closing down not just in the East, but in the West too.
India is now copying China’s model of ‘cyber sovereignty’ – and the West is slowly following suit
The internet was once viewed as a utopia where everyone was free to say whatever they liked, with only 'bad' countries regulating what was uploaded. Yet now from New Delhi to New York, leaders seem to be following Beijing's lead.
