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<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="11894337" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="russia" source="Orion">Russia</keyword> has cracked down on messaging about the <keyword id="11985141" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ukraine" source="Orion">Ukraine</keyword> war that contradicts its state propaganda.</li><li>Research found Russia blocked 300 fringe websites hosting identical blocks of text about the war.</li></ul>Russia is sweeping incredibly obscure parts of the <keyword id="11897865" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="internet" source="Orion">internet</keyword> in its efforts to stop its citizens from viewing information about <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/demolition-mariupol-theater-russia-trying-to-hide-war-crime-2022-5?r=US&amp;IR=T">Russia's invasion of Ukraine</a>, new research suggests.Data collected by digital rights and privacy group Top10VPN and shared with Insider showed Russia is blocking hundreds of small websites. These include a pet grooming site, a short horror story blog, and a tattoo parlor's website.Russia has <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-propaganda-overpowers-citizen-attempts-to-access-independent-news-2022-4?r=US&amp;IR=T">cracked down on any messaging that contradicts its propaganda line</a> that the <keyword id="12587281" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="invasion" source="Orion">invasion</keyword> of Ukraine is nothing more than a "special military operation."The blocking of these niche sites shows how the Russian state is cracking down on even the most fringe parts of the internet to control information about the war.Top10VPN found many of the niche sites blocked by Russia contained the same chunk of Russian-language text attempting to inform readers about the war in Ukraine.Samuel Woodhams, a researcher at Top10VPN, told Insider he had found roughly 300 sites that contained the same text about the war. He found they had been blocked by Russia by searching a publicly available list of blocked websites from Russia's Prosecutor General's Office.The pet grooming site, the horror story blog, and the website for the tattoo parlor all contained the same text.It begins: "Russia has attacked Ukraine! We, Ukrainians, hope that you already know about this. For the sake of your children and any hope of light at the end of this hell — please finish reading our letter," per an automated translation provided to Insider by Woodhams.Woodhams said often the text was stashed away in hard-to-find resource pages on these websites.It goes on to directly contradict Russian state propaganda, including Putin's statement that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-tries-justifying-ukraine-war-denazification-zelensky-jewish-president-2022-2?r=US&amp;IR=T">Russia is "denazifying" Ukraine</a>."While it's unclear who is responsible for disseminating this message, it's evident that efforts are being made to reach Russian citizens and bypass [Russia's] vast <keyword id="12151246" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="censorship" source="Orion">censorship</keyword> apparatus," Woodhams told Insider."Although these obscure websites are unlikely to have a huge reach, there's strength in numbers and with so many domains affected it's likely some will have evaded Russia's censorship apparatus," he said.Woodhams found other blocked websites, including a sudoku website, which also carried information about the war in Ukraine.Sites are blocked alluding to the conflict in other ways too. "Sports websites for example are often blocked for interviewing a footballer who speaks out about the conflict," said Woodhams.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/splinternet-in-pictures-what-russian-internet-looks-like-right-now-2022-3?r=US&amp;IR=T#demand-for-vpns-in-russia-spiked-over-2000-after-the-invasion-7">Russia has already blocked mainstream online platforms and sites</a>, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Since the invasion began 960 <keyword id="11893589" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news" source="Orion">news</keyword> domains have been blocked in Russia, according to <a href="https://www.top10vpn.com/research/websites-blocked-in-russia/">Top10VPN</a>.On April 24 Russia also blocked <a href="https://www.chess.com/news/view/chess-com-banned-by-russia">Chess.com</a>, which had <a href="https://www.chess.com/article/view/on-the-invasion-of-ukraine">publicly stated</a> its condemnation of the invasion of Ukraine on February 26.Chess.com said in a <a href="https://www.chess.com/news/view/chess-com-banned-by-russia">statement</a> that its apps continued to function even though its website was blocked."We happily encourage our Russian members to continue accessing our site using our apps or any of the many outstanding VPN services that are so essential in Russia," it said.There was a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-ukraine-russia-vpn-demand-surge-amid-crackdown-online-dissent-2022-3?r=US&amp;IR=T">surge in Russian demand for virtual private networks </a>(VPNs), following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. VPNs allow users to access information otherwise blocked in their country.Following the invasion, Ukrainians and activists found ingenious ways of bypassing Russian internet censorship.Some posted Google reviews of restaurants and locations containing messages about Ukraine, leading to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-tripadvisor-disable-reviews-russia-ukraine-2022-3?r=US&amp;IR=T">Google blocking Russian such reviews</a> in early March.Ukrainian ad professionals formed a volunteer group to target Russian internet users with ads debunking misinformation about the invasion, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ukranian-ad-industry-joins-anti-propaganda-russia-ad-effort-2022-3?r=US&amp;IR=T">Insider's Lara O'Reilly</a> reported in March.

Russia is playing whack-a-mole as it repeatedly blocks niche parts of the internet spreading information about Ukraine, including a pet grooming site, a scary story blog, and a sudoku site

The splinternet in pictures: What the internet looks like for Russians right now

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The <keyword id="6354862" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trump">Trump</keyword> administration announced a broad plan on Wednesday to block Chinese software from being used on US devices and keep US data off Chinese cloud services.</li><li>The plan mirrors <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>'s "great firewall" that prevents people in China from accessing most US websites and apps.</li><li>While the Trump administration's announcement rocked the world of <keyword id="6358815" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech">tech</keyword>, Silicon Valley leaders have long braced for a "<keyword id="7593657" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="splinternet">splinternet</keyword>" that could replace the world wide web with locally contained networks.</li><li>Others, like former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, have previously predicted a bifurcated <keyword id="6357247" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Internet">internet</keyword>, split between China's internet and the rest of the world.</li></ul>We're closer to a "splinternet" than ever before.Tech leaders have long warned that the world wide web could come to an end if nation-states across the globe wall off other countries' websites and products — and a new plan proposed by the Trump administration on Wednesday takes the US one more step in that direction.Secretary of State Mike <keyword id="3861312" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="pompeo">Pompeo</keyword> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-unveils-blueprint-to-seal-off-chinese-tech-giants-2020-8">announced</a> Wednesday that the US is planning a "Clean Network" program that would ban Chinese apps from US app stores and block US tech companies from storing data on China-owned cloud services. It's the latest escalation in an ongoing dispute between the US and China and follows President Donald Trump's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/can-trump-ban-tiktok-no-legal-experts-cfius-alternative-options-2020-7">threat to ban TikTok</a> if it isn't sold to a US company by its Beijing-based owner.Pompeo's plan mirrors <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/great-firewall-of-china">China's "great firewall,"</a> which blocks people in China from accessing most US websites and grants the Chinese government broad powers to regulate and censor online content within its borders.Russia has similarly <a href="https://secure-web.cisco.com/1_FJNtVjwOOGTsdjpTkf7Dbny6TI5DyO3FSe3yxaAooaQLLcJovfANUYQaEgeO83pNENCY-DPoX8iPEiPStlPVvhfhw1E102CO88JLIRJNsCUmXh8_WMAlno2ngNMHd_xqwyLybkc_jzpUYWXcUe1NgWyA8EirC48ZbqzZRC9-17OTOd1pHFkB9XymIZqijKtzaD_HgukaKj_d4GuCf_5NRIeMu_OHJ95Rz6pXbfbTBP7ltIz_cfvddtkBtgYQLgI67nFzsd3Jx_kr9GDOPXe32NYC_OB7n3tLsb1TPiG6jTVdMyLq_OY_DJBXGjRuIW8BLJ9_qPudLPQ2ebDjkW7D7kcB4pPlzKw9wfjNQPi_Vc/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Frussia-to-disconnect-from-internet-to-simulate-cyberwar-2019-2">experimented</a> with building an internet that can be shut off from the rest of the world, and countries including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and North Korea already <a href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/newsroom/first_global_filtering_survey_released">censor</a> online content from other countries.<h3>The splinternet isn't a new idea — but it's becoming more of a reality</h3>While the Trump administration's plan would mark an unprecedented step away from a free and open global internet, Silicon Valley has anticipated a Balkanized splinternet for years.Early tech bloggers like <a href="http://blogs.harvard.edu/doc/2008/12/16/the-splinternet/">Doc Searls</a> and <a href="http://hakpaksak.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/apples-itunes-npr-barriers-to-giving-and-the-">Stephen Lewis</a> began theorizing about a splinternet as early as 2008, noting that the free and open ideals that built the world wide web are increasingly at odds with the political agendas of governments across the globe.Lewis noted at the time that companies like Apple and Google seemed perfectly willing to modify their products to fit various governments' regulations rather than advocate for a neutral, global internet. He noted that Apple willingly removed NPR shows from its iTunes podcast library in countries that banned the station."[Governments] still carve up the world according to geopolitical entities and borders defined between the late-eighteenth century and the mid-twentieth and gerrymander services and access accordingly. Apparently, so does Apple. Apple's method of 'appliancing' country-by-country reinforces anachronistic borders and undermines the potential of the internet to transcend past divisions," Lewis wrote.<h3>A splinternet or a bifurcated internet?</h3>Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has predicted that the internet as we know it will split in the future — but Schmidt says it's less useful to imagine a "splintered" internet than a separation between China and the rest of the world."I think the most likely scenario now is not a splintering, but rather a bifurcation into a Chinese-led internet and a non-Chinese internet led by America," Schmidt <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/eric-schmidt-internet-will-split-in-two-2028-china-2018-9">said</a> in 2018. Schmidt himself now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/technology/eric-schmidt-pentagon-google.html">advises</a> the Pentagon and serves as a liaison between many Silicon Valley companies and the US military."If you look at China ... the scale of the companies that are being built, the services being built, the wealth that is being created is phenomenal. Chinese Internet is a greater percentage of the GDP of China, which is a big number, than the same percentage of the US, which is also a big number," he added.Schmidt predicts that, while America's allies could keep using the same internet as the US, other countries are likely to adopt China's infrastructure — especially the <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/what-is-belt-and-road-china-infrastructure-project-2018-1">roughly 70 countries</a> across Asia, Africa, and Europe that have preexisting infrastructure deals with China. Pompeo's announcement included calls to shore up a similar partnership between US allies, urging them "to join the growing tide to secure our data from the CCP's surveillance state and other malign entities." The State Department <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/08/05/business/05reuters-usa-china-apps-pompeo.html">said</a> in a statement that more than 30 countries have already been designated by Washington as "Clean Countries."

Tech leaders have long predicted a 'splinternet' future where the web is divided between the US and China. Trump might make it a reality.

Welcome to the start of another week. Today, we're taking you inside <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-shares-bold-vision-for-healthcare-business-2022-3">Amazon's grand healthcare ambitions</a>, and telling you <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-buy-nfts-on-opensea-2022-3">what you should do with an NFT.</a>Ready? Let's get to it.If this was forwarded to you, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/subscription/newsletter/10-things-in-tech">sign up here</a>. Download Insider's app – click <a href="https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id554260576">here for iOS</a> and <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.freerange360.mpp.businessinsider">here for Android</a>.<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-shares-bold-vision-for-healthcare-business-2022-3"></a>1. Leaked audio reveals Amazon's ambition to be a "significant disruptor" in healthcare. In <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-shares-bold-vision-for-healthcare-business-2022-3">a recording</a> of a company all-hands meeting in November, CEO Andy Jassy says Amazon Care is one of the "innovations" that most excites him.<ul><li>Amazon Care, the company's new primary-care business, connects patients with doctors over text and video — and in some locations, mails prescriptions and dispatches a nurse to people's homes.</li><li>According to internal documents and seven people familiar with the matter, Amazon is looking to expand its primary-care business through partnerships and new services.</li><li>The company is aiming to combine Amazon Care with its online pharmacy and health diagnostics offerings to ultimately become a one-stop shop for healthcare.</li></ul><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-shares-bold-vision-for-healthcare-business-2022-3">Inside Amazon's bold healthcare vision.</a>In other news:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/splinternet-in-pictures-what-russian-internet-looks-like-right-now-2022-3"></a><div type="image" title="Vladimir Putin (2017 photo)" height="2950" width="3933" msid="90355363" hostid="261"></div>2. See what the internet looks like for Russians right now. Eight days after its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has cut off access to foreign news sites like the BBC, as well as to social media like Facebook and Instagram. Insider got a look at what the internet is like for users in Russia — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/splinternet-in-pictures-what-russian-internet-looks-like-right-now-2022-3">this is the "splinternet" in action.</a>3. Wag's animal safety troubles could draw scrutiny ahead of its $350 million SPAC deal. Former employees at Wag, an online dog-care service, said the company's policies put dogs at risk. Former "trust and safety" workers said they won't use Wag for their own animals, and that support teams regularly take a day or longer to respond to emergencies. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wag-doesnt-adequately-protect-dogs-say-walkers-former-employees-2022-3">Inside Wag's safety woes.</a>4. A lawsuit accuses Google of racial bias against Black employees. The lawsuit, filed on Friday, alleges the company steers Black workers to lower-level jobs and pays them less because of their race. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-lawsuit-racial-bias-against-black-employees-californa-2022-3">Get the rundown on the allegations.</a>5. Silicon Valley runs on the free labor of burnt-out volunteer programmers. Open-source developers work for free on projects that companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Netflix all rely on. But the volunteer developers are burning out, quitting, and even sabotaging their own projects — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/open-source-developers-burnout-low-pay-internet-2022-3">and it's putting the entire internet at risk.</a>6. A former Apple employee has been charged with defrauding the company out of more than $10 million. The 52-year-old is accused of having taken kickbacks, stealing equipment, and money laundering when he worked for the <keyword id="6358815" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech" source="Orion">tech</keyword> company. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-former-employee-fraud-money-laundering-tax-evasion-10-million-2022-3">What we know so far.</a>7. A Google employee left her job and soared to TikTok fame — and now makes more than her tech salary. In 2020, Melissa Ong quit her UX design job to become a full-time content creator. Now, with more than 4 million followers, Ong can make her Google salary in a month. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/i-became-tiktok-famous-after-leaving-a-job-i-hated-2022-3">She explains how she did it.</a>8. The photo of a killed Ukrainian woman and her kids has made the war feel painfully personal to many tech workers. Earlier this month, Tatiana Perebeinis — who worked at tech startup SE Ranking — and her two children were killed in Ukraine. Her death, captured in a New York Times photo, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photo-ukraine-startup-tatiana-perebeinis-seranking-death-stuns-tech-workers-2022-3">brought home the war's brutalities for her colleagues and Silicon Valley peers.</a>Odds and ends:<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-buy-nfts-on-opensea-2022-3"></a><div type="image" title="nft rave pigs opensea" height="1069" width="1426" msid="90355364" hostid="261"></div>9. So you bought an NFT. Now what? One of Insider's tech reporters bought a cartoon pig NFT on OpenSea, the largest online marketplace for digital assets. After hitting roadblock after roadblock to obtain her $103 cartoon pig, she tackles the next big question with NFTs: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-buy-nfts-on-opensea-2022-3">What do you actually do with them?</a>10. Pete Davidson isn't going to space. Blue Origin announced earlier this month that the SNL comedian would be on its twentieth spaceflight. Then the company said in a tweet that he wouldn't be coming on the flight, which was delayed by six days, after all. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/pete-davidson-jeff-bezos-blue-origin-not-going-space-2022-3">What we know so far.</a>What we're watching today:<ul><li>Nvidia GTC, a global AI conference, <a href="https://www.nvidia.com/gtc/">starts today.</a></li><li>Enterprise Connect takes place today <a href="https://www.enterpriseconnect.com/orlando">through March 24.</a> </li><li>The <a href="https://www.gdconf.com/">Game Developers Conference</a> is happening today through March 25.</li><li>Nike is reporting earnings today. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/earnings-calendar">Keep up with earnings here.</a></li><li>Jim Rowan becomes Volvo's new CEO, succeeding Hakan Samuelsson.</li></ul>Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email <a href="mailto:jerb@insider.com">jerb@insider.com</a> or tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/jordanparkererb?lang=en">@jordanparkererb</a>.) Edited by Michael Cogley in London.

10 Things in Tech: Amazon's health ambitions

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6762469" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="TikTok">TikTok</keyword> is facing an onslaught of executive orders from the Trump administration, an attempt to get the viral app banned in the United States.</li><li>Tim Wu, an open-internet advocate who coined the term "net neutrality," argued <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/opinion/tiktok-wechat-ban-trump.html"> in a New York Times op-ed</a> Wednesday that TikTok should be banned as a "tit for tat" response to <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>'s nationwide <keyword id="170536" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Internet-censorship">internet censorship</keyword> of US tech companies.</li><li>Wu wrote that the "privilege" of the US open internet should be available "only to companies from countries that respect that openness themselves."</li><li>It's still unclear whether Trump has the authority to ban TikTok, or how such a ban would work in practice. TikTok is reportedly planning to sue the Trump administration over its proposed ban.</li></ul>A leading advocate of a free and open internet has come out in support of banning the popular video app TikTok in the United States.In <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/18/opinion/tiktok-wechat-ban-trump.html">a New York Times op-ed published Wednesday</a>, Tim Wu argues that banning TikTok, a China-based company, could serve as a "tit for tat" response to the Chinese government's strict stance internet <keyword id="6425075" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="censorship">censorship</keyword>.Wu — one of the staunchest advocates of a free and open internet, also well known for coining the term "net neutrality" — argues it's time for the United States to abandon the perspective that providing an open internet to all would help shepherd in democracy and free internet access in countries around the world. While acknowledging that <keyword id="6354484" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Donald-Trump">Donald Trump</keyword> is "the wrong figure to be fighting this fight," Wu says that a ban on TikTok would finally punish China over its policies stifling citizens' access to American websites and social networks.Wu's support of a <keyword id="7319188" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="TikTok-ban">TikTok ban</keyword> is a unique one that critiques how the United States has long approached foreign affairs, portraying itself as the powerful democracy other countries should aspire to model after. According to Wu banning an app like TikTok that originates from a Chinese company would cut off "the privilege of full internet access" China has been afforded while using the internet in its own country as "a tool of state power.""For many years, laboring under the vain expectation that China, succumbing to inexorable world-historical forces, would become more like us, Western democracies have allowed China to exploit this situation," Wu wrote in the Times. "There is also such a thing as being a sucker. If China refuses to follow the rules of the open internet, why continue to give it access to internet markets around the world?"Meanwhile, TikTok has become a social powerhouse with more than 100 million monthly active users in the US. Its success has given the app a multi-billion valuation, and its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, the status of the most valuable private startup in the world. In recent months, the Trump administration has stepped up its attempts to ban TikTok in the US and cut into the company's overwhelming success. Trump has based his executive orders and actions on the premise of national security, arguing that TikTok serves as a pawn for the Chinese government to access Americans' personal data.However, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-explainer-privacy-facebook-google-2020-7">experts have found little evidence</a> to support Trump's claims TikTok is used to spy on US citizens. The lack of support for this argument could undermine Trump's executive orders, as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-to-sue-trump-administration-early-as-tue-npr-reports-2020-8">TikTok reportedly plans to sue</a> the US government arguing the national-security concerns are "based on pure speculation and conjecture." Additionally, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/can-trump-ban-tiktok-no-legal-experts-cfius-alternative-options-2020-7">it's also unclear whether Trump has the power</a> to ban an app in the US, and how such a ban would work in practice. A ban on a social network like TikTok also raises questions about whether it restricts free speech <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trumps-tiktok-and-wechat-bans-could-violate-first-amendment-expert-2020-8">in violation of the First Amendment</a>.But while Americans are afforded such rights, Chinese citizens don't have the same power. The Chinese government imposes strict restrictions on its citizens' internet access — <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/great-firewall-of-china">dubbed the "great firewall"</a> — that blocks people in China from accessing many of the biggest US websites and social networks. Comparisons have already been made between Trump's attempted TikTok ban and China's internet restrictions — which could lead to concerns of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/splinternet-us-china-internet-trump-pompeo-firewall-2020-8">a "splinternet" turning into a reality</a>.

A top open-internet advocate supports banning TikTok as a way to punish China over internet censorship

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6354862" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trump">Trump</keyword>'s plan to ban <keyword id="6762469" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="TikTok">TikTok</keyword> from US app stores by Sunday is an unprecedented move — and it could make the US internet more closely resemble <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword>'s heavily-censored internet, experts say.</li><li>The ban could force users to try to download TikTok and WeChat through secretive backchannels, or attempt to keep using them until the inability to update the apps makes them unusable, experts told Business Insider.</li><li>Civil rights groups have criticized the ban as a potential violation of American users' First Amendment rights, and the ban is likely to face a legal challenge on those grounds.</li><li>But other experts said that Trump's ban doesn't rise to the level of China's censorship because it doesn't ban TikTok at the network level, and people in the US could still access TikTok through VPNs or other channels.</li></ul>When the Trump administration <a href="https://www.commerce.gov/news/press-releases/2020/09/commerce-department-prohibits-wechat-and-tiktok-transactions-protect">announced plans</a> to ban TikTok and WeChat from US app stores this week, some technology and government experts were reminded of the tactics of a different nation that heavily regulates its internet: China.The unprecedented ban mirrors the methods China employs, using its "great firewall" to ban apps and websites that are seen as threats to the government and its interests. While US <keyword id="6358815" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech">tech</keyword> companies have traditionally advocated for an open, unregulated internet across the globe, increasing geopolitical tensions — especially between the US and China — are threatening that vision."The Trump administration is effectively taking a page out of the CCP playbook by replicating cyber sovereignty in a US context," said Rebecca Lissner, a scholar at Georgetown University's Center for Security Studies and co-author of a An Open World, a new book on shifting global powers.The Trump administration's ban on TikTok and WeChat hinges on the fact that, because they are based in China, the apps are subject to laws that require they turn over any requested data to the Chinese government. But the ban also aligns with an <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45899310">ongoing trade war</a> between the two countries that has amplified under Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping.Lissner argues that Trump's ban could accelerate a fragmented <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/splinternet-us-china-internet-trump-pompeo-firewall-2020-8">"splinternet"</a> that hampers the ability of US tech companies and users to connect with other countries."Rather than establishing a model for the type of global internet that the United States would hope to see, we're actually replicating the exact types of behaviors that on a global scale we should be trying to combat," Lissner told Buisness Insider.<h2>The ban could force TikTok users to access the app through secretive backchannels — and is likely to face a First Amendment challenge</h2>Leeza Garber, a lecturer at the Wharton School of Business teaching internet law, told Business Insider that while the ban is unprecedented, it doesn't rise to the level of Chinese state censorship because TikTok would merely be banned from US app stores, not blacklisted from the internet entirely.However, Garber anticipates that people in the US could be forced to find backchannels to keep accessing TikTok, like using VPNs that make it look like they're viewing the app from a different country. Otherwise, users who already have the app downloaded will be able to keep using it but not receive updates."What a ban is really going to look like is users that already have it can continue to use it, but as it needs patches you're not going to get those. So at some point it'll stop working and if that happens, it'll likely fizzle out and a new competitor will come in," Garber said.Garber said it's highly unlikely that the US will attempt to ban TikTok from all American networks in the way China's great firewall operates — but that the possibility shouldn't be ruled out entirely."2020 has proven to be such a crazy year that you never know," she said.Regardless of whether the ban goes further than Trump's current plan — which would freeze app store downloads and ban TikTok data from being held on US servers — it's likely to face a First Amendment challenge, Garber said. The ACLU said in a statement to <a href="https://twitter.com/alexeheath/status/1306965935648055299">The Information</a> on Friday that Trump's order "violates the First Amendment rights of the people of the United States."<h2>Experts say the dispute could lead to a domino effect, further splintering the internet across the globe</h2>Trump's ban comes as governments across the globe are increasingly regulating how their citizens' data is stored and what tech companies do with that data. Ireland recently <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/ireland-to-order-facebook-to-stop-sending-user-data-to-u-s-11599671980">ordered Facebook</a> to stop sending Irish users' data to the US, citing concerns about surveillance by the US government.As that trend continues, companies like TikTok could become increasingly caught in the crosshairs when nation-states no longer trust one another with data, according to St. Johns University professor of finance Yun Zhu, who specializes in tech and international trade."This is not only happening between the US and China," Zhu told Business Insider. "Facebook, Apple, and Google are facing challenges from foreign countries as well. "How do they prevent a country of accusing them of not meeting national security standards?"TikTok <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-response-trump-us-ban-facebook-wechat-bytedance-2020-9">said</a> it plans to fight the Trump ban in court, and has called on other US social media companies to join its litigation.

Trump's TikTok ban could mean Americans have less freedom on the internet, just like in China, experts warn

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Chinese-owned <keyword id="6762469" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="TikTok">TikTok</keyword> is under pressure from President Donald <keyword id="6354862" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trump">Trump</keyword> to sell its US operations or face a ban — but <keyword id="1334" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="China">China</keyword> responded last week by implementing new export rules that could give it power to veto the sale.</li><li>While companies including Microsoft, Walmart, and Oracle were reportedly bidding to buy TikTok, the new rules from China could slow down negotiations.</li><li>Experts and analysts told Business Insider that the tense state of affairs between the US and China seem unlikely to deescalate, and could have lasting implications for the future of <keyword id="6358815" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="tech">tech</keyword> commerce between the two countries.</li><li>In the immediate term, US companies could see falling sales in China as nationalistic sentiment there turns against the US. More broadly, the internet could become even more splintered along geopolitical lines, making it increasingly difficult for companies to do business in both countries simultaneously.</li></ul>The Trump administration and Chinese government continue to escalate a trade battle over the sale of TikTok's US operations — and experts say the struggle could define a new normal for US tech companies doing business in China.Specifically, companies could be forced to choose whether to do business in China or the US as regulations along geopolitical lines make it increasingly costly to access both markets, experts told Business Insider.Trump previously ordered TikTok's parent company, <keyword id="3749909" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Bytedance">ByteDance</keyword>, to sell the app's American operations by mid-September or face a ban in the US. Trump said TikTok's Chinese ownership posed a national security threat and added that the US government should be given a cut of the sale.By August, Bytedance was reportedly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-sale-disrupted-china-rules-give-self-veto-2020-8">weighing</a> buyout offers from Microsoft, Walmart, and Oracle, among <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-acquisition-potential-buyers-us-operations-investors-microsoft-walmart-oracle-2020-8">other companies</a>, and a sale <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/31/tiktok-deal-to-sell-us-business-could-be-announced-as-soon-as-tomorrow.html">seemed imminent</a>. But China may have <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-new-rules-tiktok-deal-what-it-means-2020-8">thrown a wrench in those plans</a> last week, when it announced new regulations giving it veto power over exports of tech products, including proprietary algorithms like the one that powers TikTok.China's announcement slowed down talks between ByteDance and potential buyers, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/china-new-rules-tiktok-deal-what-it-means-2020-8">The Wall Street Journal</a> reported. But according to experts, the mounting escalation from both the US and China to exert control over the TikTok deal could have reverberating impacts on the future of tech commerce between the two countries.The escalation could hurt US tech companies' profits in the immediate term beyond a TikTok sale, Logan Purk, a senior equity analyst at Edward Jones, told Business Insider. He noted that Trump's <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-china-trump/trump-extends-order-on-u-s-telecom-supply-chain-security-until-2021-idUSKBN22P2KG">ban on Huawei</a> tanked semiconductor stocks globally, and that nationalistic sentiment among Chinese consumers subsequently <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/23/a-growing-number-of-chinese-consumers-are-switching-from-apples-iphone-hong-kong-paper-says.html">hurt Apple's sales in the country</a>."If this situation deteriorates further ... I think that can start to tip some dominoes, with some more nationalistic stances against US-based products," Purk said.As the escalation heightens, there's reason to believe neither Trump nor Chinese officials will back down because it's not in their immediate political interests to do so, according to Erik Gordon, a professor at Michigan's Ross School of Business. TikTok and other major companies could bear the brunt of that struggle."TikTok should expect to be out of the US," Ross said. "If China blocks a sale, it makes Trump twice as happy — no TikTok in America and no billions going to ByteDance."Ray Wang, principal analyst and founder of Constellation Research, told Business Insider that companies could be increasingly forced to choose whether to do business in the US or China as operating in both countries becomes increasingly difficult. "We're making it difficult for everybody who's in between. We're asking people to choose sides, when before it was okay to kind of play both sides. And I think that's really the big difference we've seen over the last 18 months."The current battle over the ownership of a TikTok's algorithms is largely unprecedented in the history of US-China trade, according to Marshall Meyer, a professor at Penn's Wharton School who studies management in China.Meyer said the dispute could accelerate the global tech landscape towards a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/splinternet-us-china-internet-trump-pompeo-firewall-2020-8">"splinternet"</a> where the web is divided along geopolitical lines. Tech giants like Apple and Google have already carved out parts of their business in China to accommodate regulations there, and further tensions could restrict how they operate."China is playing a classic tit for tat — no one quite anticipated this," Meyer told Business Insider. "So we're going to need a new regime for managing global technologies. It's not clear what kind of governance structures are needed to satisfy these conditions. I have absolutely no idea what has to be put in place to make this work."But there's one economic factor that Meyer says is underestimated as a global force in the future of tech commerce between the US and China: American consumers' emotional connection to tech imports."I asked my 16-year-old grandson to tell me about TikTok ... and he said, basically, they have figured out how to appeal to teenagers' need for instant gratification," Meyer said. "People have a real emotional connection to these products. And once you've got that coming from abroad, it raises all kinds of complicated questions."

Experts say Trump's war on TikTok could have a lasting impact on trade and might force tech companies to choose between doing business in the US or China

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