Why the Open Internet Is Being Closed Off Piece by Piece
June 7, 2025 · Frisian News
Governments and tech giants have begun fragmenting the global internet through content blocking, surveillance requirements, and national walling off. What started as an open network now faces systematic closure through regulation and commercial pressure.
A software engineer in Bangkok cannot reach websites her American friend uses every day. A researcher in Moscow watches his access to academic papers shrink month after month. A small business owner in rural Brazil finds her online store blocked by a new tax compliance system she cannot navigate. These are not glitches. They are the result of deliberate policy choices made by governments and corporations to close off the internet they once promised would be free and open.
The fragmentation began quietly, then accelerated. China built its Great Firewall decades ago. The European Union imposed the Digital Services Act, which forces platforms to remove content at speed or face ruinous fines. Britain demands that social media companies prove they police their own spaces. India blocks websites it deems a threat. Russia and Iran disconnect from the global network entirely in emergencies. Each government believes it acts for good reasons: safety, security, public health, national sovereignty. Each step feels small, justified, necessary. Together they kill the internet that existed before.
Tech companies accelerate the process by choice. Meta, Google, and Amazon control the pipes through which most people reach the web. They set their own rules, change them without warning, and ban users and content without appeal. These companies operate as gatekeepers more powerful than any government in their reach, yet they face no democratic accountability. When Twitter changed ownership, one man rewrote the rules overnight. When TikTok faces regulatory pressure, it simply follows orders rather than fight. The internet has become a utility, but utilities belong to landlords, not to the public.
The push comes from real problems that governments and companies use to justify closures. Misinformation spreads fast. Child exploitation hides in dark corners. Terrorists recruit online. Fraud costs people money. These threats are genuine. But the solution offered, always, is to give authority figures more power to decide what stays and what goes. Few ask who decides, by what standard, or what happens when that power spreads to political speech, business competition, or unpopular opinion. The mechanism built to stop the worst content becomes the tool to suppress the merely inconvenient.
Small countries and small businesses feel the squeeze first. They cannot negotiate with Google or Meta or Apple. They cannot lobby Brussels or Washington. They accept the rules written by others or they disappear. The dream of the internet as a tool for the powerless, a way for a person in a small town to reach the world, has yielded to a reality where a handful of companies and governments decide what billions can see and say. The internet was never truly open. But it is closing faster now, and nobody votes on it.
In software-yngenieur yn Bangkok kin websteeën net berikke dy't har Amerikaanske freon elke dei brûkt. In ûndersoeker yn Mosku sjocht syn tagong ta akademyske papieren moanne foar moanne krimp. In lytse bedriuwseigener yn lâns Brazilië sjocht har online winkel blokkearre troch in nij belastingtalingssysteem dat se net begripe kin. Dit binne gjin bugs. Dit binne it gefolch fan bewuste beleidskeuzen fan regearingen en bedriuwen om it ynternet dat se ienris frij en iepen meitsje woude ticht te meitsjen.
De fragmintaasje begûn stil, dêrnei fersneld it. Sina boud syn Grutte Muorre dekadaen lyn. De Europeeske Uny stelde de Digital Services Act yn, dy't platfoarmen dwinget ynhâld fluch fuort te doen of grutte boeten te risikearjen. Graat-Britanje easklet dat media-bedriuwen bewize dat se har eignne romten kontrolearje. Yndia blokkeert websteeën dy't it as in bedriging sjocht. Ruslân en Iran untkoppelen harren yn noodsituaasjes folslein fan it wrâldwiide netwurk. Elke regearing leapet dat it om goede redenen hândelt: feilichheid, zekerheid, folksgezûnheid, nasjonale sofoereiniteit. Elke stap fielt lytse, rjochtfeardiget, nedich. Tegearre dooie se it ynternet fan earder.
Techbedriuwen fersnelle it proses troch kar. Meta, Google en Amazon kontrolearje de ledinnen wêrtroch de measte minsken it web berikje. Se stelle har alnformelle regels, feroarje dy sûnder warskowing en bannen brûkers en ynhâld sûnder ferhier. Dizze bedriuwen operearje as poartewachters machtiger dan hokker regearing yn berikt, dochs hawwe se gjin demokratyske rekkenskip. Do Twitter fan eigendom feroarde, herskreaun ien man de regels fan de iene oant de oare nacht. Do TikTok regelgjeving te wachten stiet, folget it gewoan befelen ynstee te fjochtsjen. It ynternet is in nuttsbedrijf wurden, mar nuttsbedriuwen hearre ta libberders, net oan it publyk.
De druk komt út echte problemen dy't regearingen en bedriuwen brûke om sluitingen te rjochtveardigjen. Misinformaasje ferspriedt har fluch. Baarnnearbuiting ferberget har yn donkere hoeken. Terroristen rekrutearje online. Bedrog koste minsken jild. Dizze bedriigingen binne echt. Mar de oanboaden oplossing, altyd, is om oerheid-figuren mear macht te jaan oer wat bliuwt en wat giet. Pear frege wa beslist, neffens hokker norm, of wat bart do dy macht him útwriedt nei politike toespraken, bedriuwskonkurrinsje of ûnpopulêr miening. It meganisme boud om de eargste ynhâld tsjin te hâlden, wert it arkefeit om it allinne ûngemaklik tsjin te hâlden.
Lytse lannen en lytse bedriuwen fiele de druk earst. Se kinne net oer-ûnderhannelje mei Google of Meta of Apple. Se kinne net lobbje by Brussel of Washington. Se akseptearje de regels fan oaren of se ferdwine. De dream fan it ynternet as in arkefeit foar machtelosen, in wize foar in persoan yn in lytse doarp om de wrâld te berikjen, hat plak makke foar in werklikheid wêryn in hânfol bedriuwen en regearingen bepale wat miljarden sjogge en sizze kinne. It ynternet wie nea wier iepen. Mar it sluit flugger no, en niemich stemt derfoar.
Published June 7, 2025 · Frisian News · Ljouwert, Fryslân