Scott Malcomson is a political-risk and communications consultant and author of five books, including the forthcoming “Splinternet: How Geopolitics and Commerce Are Fragmenting the World Wide Web.” He was foreign editor at the New York Times Magazine, a senior official at the United Nations and the US State Department, and director of communications at two global NGOs.
China
Big Tech Drives South. The Road Goes Through India.
India is artfully positioning itself to be a beneficiary of the tech conflict now accelerating between the U.S. and China. Reliance Jio, a very Indian sort of national champion, may benefit most.
Donald Trump
Welcome to the Splinternet
Donald Trump has referred to "closing" the Internet in areas where the U.S. has enemies, while China's president, Xi Jinping, reasserted last week that each state has a sovereign right to control what its citizens can and can't do in cyberspace. Russia believes a state should control "its" Internet. A European Union regulation determines how non-EU companies can market to or monitor EU individuals. That four such distinct political cultures could all reach the same conclusion suggests that the days of a universal Internet are numbered.
