Thread by @AlecStapp

The free and open internet is under attack by authoritarians all around the world.

How can liberal democracies defend the internet while creating a set of rules that mitigates harm?

New piece with @calebwatney @Maxjb & @andrewjb_ exploring this question:
innovationfrontier.org/defending-the-…

The Chinese Communist Party has blocked Western internet companies from accessing their domestic market for years.

Now, others are following in their footsteps.

Nigeria banned Twitter for deleting a tweet from the president.

India raided Twitter's office in New Delhi.

We can't return to the libertarian days of the early internet (nor would we want to).

But leaders need to defend and promote the values of the free and open internet, while taking targeted measures to address privacy concerns, hate speech, and foreign interference in elections.

If liberal democracies don't coordinate on regulation, then we will get one of two very bad outcomes:

1) The Chinese model will win out & we'll get a true splinternet

2) Liberal democracies just default to the most restrictive set of regulations (the "Brussels effect")

We need to act fast because the playbook of "shut down the internet during a crisis" is picking up steam.

And through the Belt and Road Initiative, China has been willing to invest in developing countries to a degree the West hasn't.

Why is there no US/UK competitor to Huawei?

Here's a few places to start:

1. Invest $450 billion in closing the digital divide.

Prioritize investments in satellite broadband (Starlink, OneWeb, Viasat, and SES).

These are quasi-censorship resistant and easier to roll out globally than physical infrastructure.

2. Incentivize investment in servers and core infrastructure, including building out content delivery networks (CDNs) to increase internet consumption.

3. Make public investments in artificial intelligence R&D that shapes the competitive terrain to be compatible with liberal values.

For example, machine learning techniques like simulation learning and one-shot learning require less real world data — and fewer privacy concerns.

4. Double down on the Internet Society and create a more ambitious vision for the future of internet protocols.

We agree with @mmasnick: protocols > platforms

5. Lastly, we need new global frameworks for AI, content moderation and antitrust.

These should be developed in a multi-stakeholder process to build consensus and promote stability.

If we do these things, we have a chance at preserving the free and open internet.