In the wake of horrific terrorist attacks on Pehelgam, Indian Occupied Kashmir, many Pakistani youtube channels got an email from the platform. The Indian state had requested that their channel be blocked from access to Indian users. On grounds of “National Security”. These weren’t just Pakistani government and news media channels. But also entertainment, sports and podcasts. Some that are quite critical of the Pakistani state. Some would say even to the point of propagating Indian narrative. Similar orders went out for Instagram. This time including influencers and actors. People with no connection to ‘enemy combat’.
When the ‘war’ started properly, Pakistan unblocked twitter after a year. The state realized that dissenting opinion be damned, they had a propaganda front to fight. A savvy move, that India tried to counter by asking twitter to block 8000 accounts on the same grounds. This time even local news organizations and even one official X account*.
This is India, “World’s biggest democracy”, admitting that China is right about the internet. They are building their own great firewall. However, calling it a firewall would be inaccurate. Instead of one state cutting itself off. It is the emergence of different enclaves of information borders. Regions with different filters, algorithms and platforms
And this was inevitable.
How it happened
Five years ago, in the midst of the early pandemic, I wrote 30 blog posts in 30 days. One of them was The Internet will be Balkanized. It was framed around another Indian censorship move in the wake of conflict with another one of its neighbours, China. I wrote
India has decided to ban 28 Chinese apps and sites to operate in India. Including TikTok. While India’s economic power, or lack thereof, is a whole separate debate, it is clear that this was a blow to ByteDance; India is TikTok’s biggest market.
In the wake of this, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated that US is also considering banning TikTok over National Security concerns. The US is the second biggest market.
(Tiktok is now officially banned in the US as well, but the ban is not enforced. A saga of stupidity all on its own. And it would take 3000 words just to recount. However, the only reason the platform is not banned in Canada and the EU, is because how unpopular it has been in the US. Also, how the American government fumbled through the process and is now engaged in perpetually kicking the can down the road.)
Between India and China, a 3rd of the world’s people can’t legally access the most popular social platform among young people. Most Indians have switched to Instagram Reels. You might think that it does not make a difference, one short video slop platform is the same as the other. However parent companies Meta and Bytedance have divergent priorities. Their algorithms displays different videos to the same users, to serve their commercial(and maybe political) agenda.
These are not just filter bubbles. Instead of algorithmic sequestering, this is a huge swathes of humanity existing on different information continents.
Who benefits
In the previous post I also wrote:
The video tape, and the satellite/cable TV explosion created a wave of pirated material available for many a connoisseur, but for the most part, information was not free. Then the internet happened. The internet not only freed information but also made it ‘free’; zero cost. While this has bothered the IP Industry Complex for decades, they weren’t able to do much about it. They have waged a war via extensive litigation, but to limited success; the web is still open. Because besides provide ample supply of Lost episodes and anime fansubs, the web also powered critical communications infrastructure. Tiny infractions, like IP infringement could be tolerated. Besides, it’s not like that many people were online. Any subversive behavior could easily be managed. Governments payed it no mind.
Then smartphones happened. Internet connectivity, and hence subversion, began to spread. Governments can’t ignore it anymore. They have to control it. Lucky for them they already have a model on how to do that.
Deng Xiaoping, China’s great reformer, put it more succinctly:
When you open window both flies and air come in.
State governments never liked the Internet. They can’t control information. I concluded that post with this:
There will be no internet. There will be independent national networks, that will work according to local rules. Some might even require visa for foreigners to access. While the open internet has been the norm for over two decades, the ruling elites of most countries have not changed, or are cut from the same cloth as their predecessors. Open exchange of ideas and information are a threat to their authority and hegemony. The future is bleak.
Most of it was the pressure to wrap it up quick and some of it was the COVID era doom and gloom. However the gist of it is correct. States do not like this level of free info exchange. There are genuine security concerns, but as illustrated by the Indian case, they will abuse the power if given.
The Future
Indians wanting to gawk at Pakistani actresses and watch Urdu telenovelas are just using VPNs now. So it doesn’t look like a big deal. But that is temporary. VPNs are illegal is some capacity for most of the world. These laws are not enforced, but for how long?
No business will take on States for $5/month. Eventually they will shut it down. There will be workarounds, but eventually even discussing a workaround would be deemed illegal. This will be the status quo.
*Pakistan has also blocked Indian media sites. But Pakistan is a hybrid regime, not a democracy. Also, given the abhorrent journalistic standards in India, it is not relevant this piece.
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