Opinion | US Capitol riot: how the internet exposes the weak links in American democracy
- The internet’s role in fomenting insurrection at the US Capitol has shone a light on the flaws of the West’s embrace of open-ended connectivity
- The Chinese model of governance, heavy on censorship, is no example to follow. The challenge remains for the West to prevent the breakdown of order in a free society
It was not supposed to be this way. The internet’s open architecture has long been extolled by cyber-libertarian futurists as a powerful new democratising force. Information is free and available instantaneously – and anyone can now vote with a mere click.
The rapid expansion of the public square is offered as exhibit A. Internet penetration went from 1 per cent to 87 per cent of the US population from 1990 to 2018, far outstripping the surge in the world as a whole, from zero to 51 per cent over the same period. The United States, the world’s oldest democracy, led the charge in embracing new technologies of empowerment.
The problem, of course, lies in internet governance – namely, the absence of rules. Even as we extol the virtues of the digital world, to say nothing of the acceleration of digitisation during the Covid-19 pandemic, the dark side has become impossible to ignore.
The Western model of open-ended connectivity has given rise to platforms for trade in illicit drugs, pornography, and paedophilia. It has also fuelled political extremism, social polarisation and now attempted insurrection. The virtues of cyber-libertarianism have become inseparable from its vices.