Governments around the world are increasingly regulating tech companies

Governments are limiting or banning applications, content and connectivity itself — and Big Tech companies, rich and powerful as they are, can't or won't fight back. From the Arab Spring to the Black Lives Matter protests, the internet has helped organizers build popular movements and even, on occasion, overthrow governments. But for now, at least, the tables have turned, and technology is giving entrenched leaders and parties an effective lever to bolster their power. Companies aren't sovereign, so when governments take legal action against them, whatever the motivation, they have little choice but to buckle under or stop operating in a particular nation. That last option is largely out in China, where most of the US-based internet giants have either been sidelined or chosen to exit, and most online services are provided by domestic firms that can't pick up stakes and leave. China's model may well become more common as governments seek control — and as the technology powering internet services becomes easier to copy. Organizing our online universe around centralized chokepoints like app stores and search engine monopolies does much of the work in advance for authoritarian governments looking to squelch dissent.