Does America want to control the Internet like China?
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he wants a clean Internet. What they mean is that they want to end the influence of China and Chinese companies on the Internet in America.
But, critics believe that this may hold a worrying campaign for the division of global internet.
The so-called “splinternet” is commonly used to refer to China and more recently Russia.
For the governments that want to control what people see on the Internet, the meaning of controlling it is understandable.
The Great Firewall of China is a perfect example of how a country can build the Internet as a wall around itself. You will find neither Google search engine nor Facebook in China.
However, people did not expect that America would also follow the path of China.
Despite this, critics believe that Pompeo’s statement indicates America’s progress in this direction.
Pompio says they want to remove non-trusted applications from US mobile app stores.
He said, “China’s apps are a threat to our privacy, they are spreading viruses, propaganda and misleading information.” The first question that comes to mind is which Chinese apps do Pompio rely on? There are speculations that they do not trust any Chinese app.
Alan Woodward, a security expert at the University of Surrey, says, “This is shocking. It’s like the Internet’s balkanization.”
He says, “The US government has been criticizing other countries for controlling the Internet for a long time and now we are seeing America doing this itself.”
This may be a slightly overrated question. The reasons for Pompeo’s freeing of the American network from Chinese companies are completely different from dictatorial governments’ attempts to control it.
But, it is true that if Pompeo moves on this path, then the decades-old American cyber-policy will have to be changed. If a country tops the free internet with the constitutional right to freedom of speech, it is the United States.
The Trump administration, however, has chosen a different route. One reason for this is the security concerns associated with some Chinese companies operating in the US.
Is WeChat more worrying than Tittock?
Former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos says that so much concern is expressed about TicketTock, while there are thousands of Chinese apps.
He said, “Ticketcock is not even in my top 10”. Stamos says that America should be more concerned about Tencent’s WeChat.
He says, “WeChat is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world. People are running companies on WeChat. They contain very sensitive information.”
Pompio has also stated WeChat as a future target.
It will be difficult not to see it from the perspective of the US elections to be held in November. Trump’s anti-China campaign is not limited to technology alone.
Policy or attitude?
So, is this a policy or is it only seen as a frown? Trump may also be on the verge of losing the election in November. Maybe Democrats should have a more liberal policy regarding Chinese tech.
However, Trump’s vision to free the US Internet from the interference of China has divided it far more. The biggest irony is that if this happens, the Internet will look more like China’s vision.
Look at Tiktok itself. If Microsoft buys its US unit, then there will be three TickTalks in the world. One is Tiktok (called Doyin) in China. The rest of the world has a ticketlock and there will be a ticketlock in the US. Will the future of Internet in the world be divided like this?
