"that more countries are taking a second look at digital sovereignty and that the global internet as we knew it is pulling apart. Russia, which has a long history of internet censorship and state-aligned tech companies, has taken the extraordinary recent step of interfering with access not just to WhatsApp but also Telegram, the messaging app founded by Pavel Durov, a creator of VK, Russia's Facebook alternative, who left the country more than a decade ago."
"The throttling coincided with the launch of MAX, a new government-controlled everything app - basically a messaging app with other features layered on top, modeled on China's Weixin - and an all-out marketing campaign to get people to switch. "Billboards are trumpeting it. Schools are recommending it. Celebrities are being paid to push it. Cellphones are sold with it preloaded," the Times reports."
The early internet extended globalization by enabling instantaneous communication and amplifying U.S. technological, cultural, and political influence. China constrained Western tech firms, maintained strict control over domestic networks, and built a parallel, internet-centric economy that now exerts significant international influence. Rising geopolitical and trade tensions have prompted more countries to reassess digital sovereignty and seek national control over data, platforms, and infrastructure. Russia has increasingly restricted access to foreign messaging services and launched MAX, a government-controlled multipurpose app modeled on China's Weixin, supported by intensive state-led promotion and preloading on devices.
Read at Intelligencer
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