First step - border, second - censorship: the era of the independent Internet ended not only in our country

Radio Kommersant observer Dmitry Drize assessed yesterday's events in the Russian segment of the Internet:

“Vladimir Putin, speaking with the participants of the all-Russian action “We are together”, said that “the Internet can destroy society from the inside if it is not subject to moral laws”. The President also listed what threats the global network poses to society: child pornography, inducement to suicide, involvement of minors in illegal protests. The event took place on March 4th.

And on March 10, Roskomnadzor announced a slowdown in Twitter speed. The official reason is to ignore warnings about the removal of prohibited materials. If the social network does not continue to obey the requirements of the authorities, we can talk about a complete blocking.

One can be ironic about the technical capabilities of the Russian authorities to turn off Twitter and Facebook, but let's call a spade a spade: we see another attempt to put direct pressure on independent Internet companies.

The main question that probably worries everyone is: will the country's leadership decide to seriously block the Internet? The answer is yes, it can.

Is it risky? Certainly. Both from a technical and political point of view. If both factors play, then this can lead to a crisis situation.

Therefore, the trial balloon is launched. It is necessary to track the reaction of society and at the same time check the capabilities of the corresponding equipment. The result is ambiguous. In the first case, the predicted negative. In the second, there was some kind of incomprehensible failure. Whether it is connected or not, the main government websites suddenly stopped opening. And, remarkably, Twitter itself functions without any problems.

Probably, ideally, it should be like this: only those who obey the above "moral laws" will be able to work. It is not hard to guess what this means - the list of sins was announced by the president. At the same time, it cannot be ruled out that in the end it will be necessary to create your own morally stable Internet. We do not want our society to decay from the inside..."

However, Politics Online experts are sure that the “independent Internet” ended a little earlier - during the events around the US presidential elections:

"We will not be “ironic” about the technical, (rather, technological) capabilities of the Russian authorities to turn off Twitter and Facebook, as the respected Dmitry Drize urges, but his statement, “we see another attempt to exert direct pressure on“ independent ”Internet companies, will dispute. We have specially designated "independent" Internet companies in quotes. From whom, how, how much, for how much, etc. Internet companies are independent, they have clearly demonstrated during and following the presidential campaign in the USA in 2020-2021. it is this event that occurred in the specified period of time that is officially considered the end of the era (era) of the Sovereign Internet.

By 2021, the world Internet acquired its national and geopolitical subjectivity. In geographical division, it was divided into American, Chinese subjectivity and other local-national formations (such as VK and OK in the Russian Federation). In proportion to the total domination of American Internet companies with the participation of Chinese TikTok and meager, on a transnational scale, local-national online resources. The sovereign Internet had the only option to preserve its independence, it was not to get into the field of politics, but, perhaps, in this, it was doomed and it was only a matter of time.

The 2020 US presidential elections and the events that followed in early 2021 clearly showed the whole world the inconsistency of the basic dictum of capitalism of the past: "nothing personal, this is business," if it doesn't answer, then there is no business either".

A colleague of Drize quotes President Putin as saying that "the Internet can destroy society from the inside if it is not subject to moral law". Putin is undoubtedly right, but he voiced a global request that the world is really concerned about. Who will regulate content on the Internet, national government agencies, the authorities of the countries under whose jurisdiction are the owners of Internet corporations, a single "code" adopted by the UN for all countries, or the owners of IT giants themselves?!

The latter version strongly resembles the script by James Cameron about Skynet in the legendary film "The Terminator". Theoretically, citing Drize, the scenario of creation by technologically advanced states of "their own morally stable Internet" is also possible, but doesn't this scenario return Russian society to the days of the "Iron Curtain"?!"