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This is not impossible though. China has done this with their Great Firewall and web firms such as Baidu (search engine), QQ (like Facebook), Weibo (like Twitt

This is not impossible though. China has done this with their Great Firewall and web firms such as Baidu (search engine), QQ (like Facebook), Weibo (like Twitter), etc. I believe EU and Russia also have the capability to do the same if they want to. For the rest of the world, they can license a copy from one of the three and host their own server farms. This is not a bright future to have though: the Internet would become an actual inter-net among a few huge LANs.

bilbo0s 13y ago
China is way ahead of the game... that's for sure. There's no arguing that. But the rest of the world is pretty dependent on the US when it comes to the internet. This include the EU and Russia. And this is not something that is trivial to change. I am not saying that it WON'T change... I'm saying that for the rest of the world to create a China-like internet for their citizens may be desirable, but it won't be easy. I mean... if I was Brazilian, I would much rather the Brazilian Government watched my internet usage than to have the American Government do so. Because the American Government can put you on a No-Fly list and you have no recourse. (ie - no rights in US Courts). Consequently, you have no easy way off of that list. So I understand the desire... I just think it will be more difficult than flipping a switch.
- krapp 13y ago
  >Because the American Government can put you on a No-Fly list and you have no recourse. (ie - no rights in US Courts). The American government could put you on a No-Fly list, but your own government could put you in a cage.
  - bilbo0s 13y ago
    Heh... So can the American Government. The difference is... if your own Government puts you in a cage... you actually have rights.
    - krapp 13y ago
      But - the American government probably isn't going to care if you say terrible things about your own, or if you're looking at porn, or cheating on taxes or denying the holocaust, or about any number of things that could get you into trouble on your home turf. I'm not saying America in this case isn't a threat, it is abstractly, but it can also be the lesser evil.
dethstar 13y ago
Instead of using services under authority of US sovereignty. We can all use services under authority of our own governments. True freedom will be reached then. /sarcasm
- cygwin98 13y ago
  I get what you're saying. I do notice that myself is getting more cynical nowadays. On the positive side though you can push changes to your own government, while there is nothing you can do to the USA.
krapp 13y ago
I think there are a number of self-serving incentives for countries to pursue a "national firewall" model. Many of the same governments which (justifiably though maybe also cynically) decry the scope of US surveillance would probably welcome a closed network which makes it easier to perform their own domestic surveillance while appearing to liberate their people from the bogeyman of American tyranny. Content filtering (censorship) and national version of "American" sites like Facebook and Google (of course, all of which would filter money and data back to the motherland) are win-wins for the state as well.

bilbo0s 13y ago

China is way ahead of the game... that's for sure. There's no arguing that. But the rest of the world is pretty dependent on the US when it comes to the internet. This include the EU and Russia. And this is not something that is trivial to change. I am not saying that it WON'T change... I'm saying that for the rest of the world to create a China-like internet for their citizens may be desirable, but it won't be easy. I mean... if I was Brazilian, I would much rather the Brazilian Government watched my internet usage than to have the American Government do so. Because the American Government can put you on a No-Fly list and you have no recourse. (ie - no rights in US Courts). Consequently, you have no easy way off of that list. So I understand the desire... I just think it will be more difficult than flipping a switch.

krapp 13y ago
>Because the American Government can put you on a No-Fly list and you have no recourse. (ie - no rights in US Courts). The American government could put you on a No-Fly list, but your own government could put you in a cage.
- bilbo0s 13y ago
  Heh... So can the American Government. The difference is... if your own Government puts you in a cage... you actually have rights.
  - krapp 13y ago
    But - the American government probably isn't going to care if you say terrible things about your own, or if you're looking at porn, or cheating on taxes or denying the holocaust, or about any number of things that could get you into trouble on your home turf. I'm not saying America in this case isn't a threat, it is abstractly, but it can also be the lesser evil.

dethstar 13y ago

Instead of using services under authority of US sovereignty. We can all use services under authority of our own governments. True freedom will be reached then. /sarcasm

cygwin98 13y ago
I get what you're saying. I do notice that myself is getting more cynical nowadays. On the positive side though you can push changes to your own government, while there is nothing you can do to the USA.

krapp 13y ago

I think there are a number of self-serving incentives for countries to pursue a "national firewall" model. Many of the same governments which (justifiably though maybe also cynically) decry the scope of US surveillance would probably welcome a closed network which makes it easier to perform their own domestic surveillance while appearing to liberate their people from the bogeyman of American tyranny. Content filtering (censorship) and national version of "American" sites like Facebook and Google (of course, all of which would filter money and data back to the motherland) are win-wins for the state as well.