Who owns the internet of the future_01

[00:00.94] The internet as you know it?

[00:03.06] it is under attack and it's more fragile than you might think.

[00:07.58] In the earlier, nerdier, screechier days of the net the possibilities seemed endless.

[00:13.96] "Information wants to be free," said the Web 1.0 pioneers.

[00:19.27] They envisioned a free internet where countless independent nodes would sustain a worldwide system of instant communication, entirely decentralized and therefore immune to central control or sabotage.

[00:34.67] Cut to today, and ehh, I think they got it about half right.

[00:38.66] So much for independent, it now seems like the internet and its infrastructure are owned by the same three American dudes.

[00:45.83] In a world of mega-platforms, attention-sapping algorithms and mass surveillance, we aren't wondering if information is free, we're wondering if we are.

[00:56.72] Now with all the doom and gloom aside, I should say I love the internet.

[01:00.70] It's where I spend most of my time.

[01:02.56] The best thing about my pandemic has been watching the rest of you get reduced to my level.

[01:07.61] It's accelerated the digital world's invasion of the material one.

[01:13.45] That meeting that could have been an email is now an email.

[01:17.43] Malls are being shut by search bars.

[01:19.83] Fortnite tournaments are filling national stadiums and JPEGs are selling for the price of a da Vinci.

[01:26.99] Whatever happens next, we're all going to be spending more time online.

[01:30.98] So how do we protect what makes it great and change what makes it terrifying?

[01:37.09] Well, first of all, I think we need an update.

[01:40.01] Internet access is no longer a luxury.

[01:43.20] It is a necessity for economic and individual development.

[01:47.45] For developing countries, increased access is a pathway out of poverty and enables smoother access to essential services like education and health care.

[01:57.28] As millions in the Global South have logged on, the way the world accesses the Internet has completely changed.

[02:04.45] In 2011, mobile internet use accounted for just 5% of total traffic.

[02:10.29] Today, it sits comfortably at 56%.

[02:14.28] Cheap phones and 4G have made the internet truly global, but it also means that most of us only access it through a handful of applications.

[02:24.64] The internet is in all of your pockets and this is a TED Talk, so it's probably on most of your wrists.

[02:30.74] Not mine. I've got a calculator.

[02:33.40] Keeps me humble. That’s where we access it, but we wouldn’t be able to if it weren't for unassuming, securely guarded buildings like this one.

[02:42.96] Internet exchange points where bandwidth is actually produced.

[02:46.69] If these places cease to operate, then the internet is down and not even the sweatiest guy in your IT department can do anything about it.

[02:54.92] In 2011, the Egyptian government shut down one of the country's two main exchange points, the Ramses Exchange in Cairo.

[03:03.42] The internet was being used to organize protests as users were galvanized by sharing videos of ongoing violence in real time.

[03:12.45] For days, only a few government ministries and the stock market were connected to the internet.

[03:17.76] It was a threat to the crumbling regime.

[03:20.15] And when the government did fall, the internet got the lion's share of the credit.

[03:24.67] Protests were organized without appointed leaders and with unprecedented speed.

[03:29.98] And this is what the internet does that no other technology has ever come close to achieving: decentralized mass organization.

[03:40.07] Since then, though, regimes have gotten a lot better at harnessing the internet's power for themselves.

[03:46.45] In 2019, both Iran and Iraq faced potentially destabilizing protest movements, and both governments reacted by pulling the national router.

[03:57.07] These blackouts, though, are costly.

[04:00.26] Iraq's 11-day shutdown was estimated to cost their economy over 2 billion dollars.

[04:06.38] Iran's only lasted eight days, but the communication blackout was used to imprison organizers and murder protesters in the hundreds.

[04:16.73] Video of violence made its way online once access was restored, but by then, the protest movement had lost all momentum.

[04:26.30] This year, the frontline fight for the free internet has been in Myanmar.

[04:32.14] The military junta seized power in February and enacted nightly internet shutdowns to hinder protest and hide human rights abuses.

[04:41.43] Social media was banned for months, but activists have been successfully skirting restrictions using VPNs to access restricted services and to document state violence.

[04:53.38] This is guerrilla cyberwarfare in action and it has real world casualties.

[04:59.76] Mobile phones might be empowering the resistance, but they are also facilitating data-driven mass surveillance.

[05:07.99] Use the wrong platform and the government can monitor your private messages and automatically delete them before they reach their intended recipient.

[05:17.03] To me, this is like halfway between the government censoring your mail and your thoughts.

[05:24.19] But it's not hopeless.

[05:26.33] Just before the junta took over, their arrival was documented in this viral video by a fitness influencer.