On August 5, 2020, the U.S. mounted a systematic attempt to splinter the global Internet. It released a policy that tries to leverage US information services providers to force the rest of the digital economy to indiscriminately exclude Chinese businesses. The US “Clean Path” initiative, announced in April of this year, was designed to pressure European carriers to avoid purchasing 5G equipment from Huawei and ZTE, in order to establish China-free communications paths between the US and its embassies in foreign countries. The new initiative does not seem to be confined to protecting government communications, however. Pompeo claims to be protecting “our citizens’ privacy and our companies’ most sensitive information” by eliminating interoperation with any and all Chinese providers.
Secretary Pompeo’s broader “Clean Network” initiative is a watershed in US Internet policy. It embraces national barriers to Internet connectivity. It signals to every nation, not just China, that any foreign internet-based service provider, including American ones, should be considered a national security threat. It completely abandons WTO-based free trade agreements for telecommunications equipment and services. Protectionist policies based on national origin are applied not just to the application layer, but across the board: to telecom equipment providers, cloud services, app stores, hosting, undersea cables. China’s Cybersecurity law looks liberal in comparison.
The day after Pompeo’s bombshell policy announcement, two executive orders were released banning specific apps, one on TikTok the other on WeChat. The executive orders will prohibit US app stores, credit card companies and software providers from any commercial transactions with TikTok and WeChat. The US Commerce Secretary can punish American co ..
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