
The global internet is disintegrating. What comes next? - ColinWright
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190514-the-global-internet-is-disintegrating-what-comes-next
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mantap
Google controls the internet. They control the most common browser and OS. If
Google ever were to feel sufficiently threatened by countries such as UK
attempting to build a great firewall of their own, Google could simply start
offering a "Chrome VPN" and proxy user connections through their IP space.
Russia and China can get away with blocking Google but for most countries
doing so would be economic suicide.

~~~
turtlecloud
South Korea would survive too imo. The could use Naver

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huxflux
So would Baidu and Yandex as well then?

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woah
“Any government might be worried about malicious information like malware
reaching military installations and critical water and power grids, or fake
news influencing the electorate.”

The recent moral panic about fake news and conspiracy theories in the US is
making authoritarian, Chinese-style internet censorship acceptable.

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MR4D
American domination. Hear me out before you downvote...

The EU has very little IT innovation. Their biggest internet’s company has
less than 50 million in 2018 profit [1]. SAP I a contender, but that’s pretty
much it for software.

The Japanese have Sony and Hitachi, but Hitachi also makes power plants, so
not really comparable.

The Chinese either aren’t trusted, or won’t be after the Trump admin is done
with them (see ZTE and now Huewai cases).

The only real player left is Samsung, but that’s only one company for the
South Koreans to have lead. One stumble, and they fall behind.

The US is the only country has has tons of capital spent on innovation that is
used around the world, and many companies doing it (so if one fails, the rest
will keep chugging along).

Countries that wall themselves off from the rest of the world are going to
have to figure out how to fund technology (or just steal it, when possible),
and that is not cheap. Trying to keep up a walled garden is going to restrict
the productivity of its workforce. Added to demographic challenges facing many
countries (Japan, Russia, Germany, China, etc.), and this gets even harder.

I just don’t see a way for this to change. I’d love to see more global
competition (Linux was a great example, basically upsetting the American
apple-cart, but with walled gardens, that’s unlikely to play out again.

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danielscrubs
It’s not that weird. In USA you can buy political power openly. This creates a
positive spiral for companies which in turn creates a better environment for
other companies.

Best place to invest? Yes! Do I want to live there? Maybe not (many do
though).

