Federal Communications Commissioner Simington Speaks to Silicon Flatirons

I’m excited to talk to you about what I think will be an unsettling future reality: the accelerating move from a single Internet and technology market toward one fragmented along national borders due to concerns about digital sovereignty. There was a lot of heady idealism in the early days of the Internet. The internet was a universal, open network where people from around the world could exchange services and ideas basically without restriction. Today, the Internet is fragmenting as governments institute different restrictions on content and websites. If the European Union wants to ban what it perceives as hate speech, but a US social media network adopts a strong free speech stance, what is Europe to do? There are no great options, but it is hard to see how a single, open internet can survive these pressures.