Splinternet cover art

Splinternet

How Geopolitics and Commerce Are Fragmenting the World Wide Web

Preview

Free with 30-day trial
Prime logo New to Audible Prime Member exclusive:
2 credits with free trial
1 credit a month to use on any title to download and keep
Listen to anything from the Plus Catalogue—thousands of Audible Originals, podcasts and audiobooks
Download titles to your library and listen offline
₹199 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Splinternet

Written by: Scott Malcomson
Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
Free with 30-day trial

₹199 per month after trial ends. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹501.00

Buy Now for ₹501.00

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

There's always been something universalizing about the Internet. The World Wide Web has seemed both inherently singular and global, a sort of ethereal United Nations. But today, as Scott Malcomson contends in this concise, brilliant investigation, the Internet is cracking apart into discrete groups no longer willing, or able, to connect. The implications of this shift are momentous.

Malcomson traces the way the Internet has been shaped by government needs since the 19th century - above all, the demands of the US military and intelligence services. From World War I cryptography and spying to weapons targeting against Hitler and then Stalin, the monolithic aspect of the digital network was largely determined by its genesis in a single, state-sponsored institution.

In the 1960s, internationalism and openness were introduced by the tech pioneers of California's counter-culture, the seed bed for what became Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple. But in the last 15 years, security concerns of states and the privatizing impetus of e-commerce have come to the fore and momentum has shifted in a new direction, towards private, walled domains, each vying with the other in an increasingly fragmented system, in effect a "Splinternet".

Because the Internet today surrounds us so comprehensively, it's easy to regard the way it functions as a simple given, part of the natural order of things. Only by stepping back and scrutinizing the evolution of the system can we see the Internet for what it is - a contested, protean terrain, constantly evolving as different forces intervene to drive it forward. In that vital exercise, Malcomson's elegant, erudite account will prove invaluable.

©2016 Scott Malcomson (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"This is not your ordinary history of the Internet. Scott Malcomson has brilliantly extended the connections between Silicon Valley and the military back far beyond DARPA - back, in fact, to World War I. If you want to understand the conflict between cyberspace utopians and the states and corporations who seek to dominate our virtual lives, you've got to read this book." (James Ledbetter, editor, Inc. Magazine)

What listeners say about Splinternet

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.