How the US Government Learned to Stop Worrying About The Global Internet and Kicked Russians Off Its Networks

The global internet is a lot less global than it was a few years ago. The US government, which used to be the loudest advocate for knocking down digital barriers, has begun to erect barriers of its own since the 2016 election and the Russian hacking and influence operation that upended it. US officials and lawmakers once merely condemned Russian and Chinese laws that forced tech companies to share their source code or to store citizens’ data within national borders. Now, they’re developing countervailing laws and policies that limit the ability of those nations’ companies to access and endanger US secrets. The Obama administration was willing to accept a certain amount of digital risk that Russian and Chinese companies posed to its systems to avoid sparking a tit-for-tat conflict with those nations that might limit the ability of US tech companies to operate across national borders. The Trump administration is willing to accept far less risk.