Authoritarian censorship is coming and thumps.
Bennett and Garson 23 – Senior Policy Analyst at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change; Cyber & Geopolitics Lead at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
Andrew Bennett and Melanie Garson, “The Open Internet on the Brink: A Model to Save Its Future,” Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, 09-30-2021, https://www.institute.global/insights/tech-and-digitalisation/open-internet-brink-model-save-its-future
The global, open internet is under threat. Restrictions on internet freedoms are increasing globally, governments are competing to assert their authority and a decades-long governance system of voluntary, technical bodies is now creaking. China is a growing competitor and adversary in many areas of internet governance yet remains an important partner in others, such as global infrastructure rollout.
Three tipping points make urgent action necessary: 1) Geopolitical competition is now playing out on hidden frontiers of conflict around the internet’s architecture – including semiconductor supply chains, submarine data cables and technical standards – which may lock in fragmentation; 2) Globally, 3.7 billion people are yet to gain internet access, but as they do the world cannot rely on US hegemony to protect the future of the internet; 3) Restrictive internet models – which include censorship, internet shutdowns and political control of the internet’s underlying architecture – are gaining ground, at a cost to the whole world.