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Threat/ Threat of TikTok ban shows cracks in global internet governance. https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/07/tech/us-tiktok-ban/index.html">https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/0...
2/Since the 1990s, the US has pursued an open door policy for global internet governance -- pushing self-regulation and Silicon Valley interests. https://academic.oup.com/fpa/article-abstract/7/1/89/1796108">https://academic.oup.com/fpa/artic...
3/This then got caught up in a larger belief that social media would forge a new type of liberation technology. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/googles-eric-schmidt-internet-could-make-censorship-impossible/">https://www.cbsnews.com/news/goog...
4/Now of course, we are seeing that these open networks can be used by authoritarian states to repress their societies. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/technology/china-surveillance.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/1...
5/What is perhaps less understood is how the global internet regime opens the door for these domestic authoritarian responses to spillover back into democracies. https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/lessons-from-the-mueller-report-on-russian-political-warfare/">https://www.brookings.edu/testimoni...
6/In other words, russian disinformation and Chinese surveillance spillovers are not simply exogenous but an endogenous feature of the system.
7/ @henryfarrell and I layout this argument in a new piece forthcoming in @IntOrgJournal, which looks at how the liberal international information order creates these types self-undermining feedbacks. https://www.dropbox.com/s/rvrv8xg5v9hz3s2/FarrellNewman_R%26R2020Final.docx?dl=0">https://www.dropbox.com/s/rvrv8xg...
8/Key implication -- surveillance threats from TikTok are not aberrations but part of the system. Liberal governments need to work together to maintain benefits of information openness while guarding against spillovers from authoritarian regimes. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-13/making-cyberspace-safe-democracy">https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/...
