The US and China are fiercely competing to become the global champion of 5G, the new generation of incredibly fast mobile technology. This battle is bound to have major repercussions for the future of the Internet. Right now, it is already difficult to speak of one uniform Internet, due to vast differences between the digital landscape in the West and that in China and other authoritarian states.
In most countries, the Internet is a mostly open, digital world where people are free to exchange ideas and to develop websites and web applications. However, in China and countries that have adopted the Chinese model, such freedoms are vigorously suppressed by the government, although citizens are provided with a highly streamlined digital environment built around smartphone use. The fight over 5G might remove the concept of a global, open internet even further from reality.
Read more: The Internet, Divided Between the U.S. and China, Has Become a Battleground
