The internet must not break apart into a liberal version used by the West and an authoritarian one which China could export to developing countries, Tony Blair has said.
The former UK prime minister said rival powers should find a way to co-operate in the digital world to prevent mutually destructive cyberattacks.
He said it was in the West’s interests to be able to service the internet globally, including in emerging economies which could seek quick-build infrastructure from China.
Beijing’s Digital Silk Road initiative has seen Chinese companies export digital infrastructure around the world. Washington has pressured its allies to reject Chinese tech over fears of espionage.
Analysts have spoken of a “splinternet” in which countries increasingly try to regulate the web within their own borders.
Once rival infrastructure is set up, it could be hard to bring together because of the physical supply chains and undersea cables that support the internet, said a report by Mr Blair’s policy institute.
Mr Blair said Chinese infrastructure was appealing to many countries because it took too long to get projects approved in the US and Europe.
“If you’re an African leader and you’re trying to get some infrastructure done in your country through the West, you get locked up in committees and bureaucracy and World Bank reports and box-ticking exercises,” he said.
He said at an event hosted by his institute that world powers should try to “carve out some practical rules” on maintaining the global internet.
“I think the risk of a complete decoupling is that you get into a competition that leads to confrontation,” he said.
“The damage that we can do to each other on this is immense, incalculable.
“I think you’ve got to try and carve out, within that, some practical rules that allow us to coexist. The consequences of trying to decouple absolutely … I think are going to be very painful for both sides.”
The institute’s report said key areas of co-operation should include measures to prevent internet shutdowns. A five-hour glitch at Facebook caused widespread consternation earlier this week.
Mr Blair, who presided over the early days of the internet age, as prime minister from 1997 to 2007, said many politicians did not understand the key issues.
“For a lot of policymakers, technology and innovation is something they in principle understand the importance of, but in detail find incredibly difficult and challenging,” he said.
“I think one of the biggest problems today is that the changemakers and the policymakers are in two different rooms.”
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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South Korea
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
Manchester United v Liverpool
Premier League, kick off 7.30pm (UAE)
MATCH INFO
What: 2006 World Cup quarter-final
When: July 1
Where: Gelsenkirchen Stadium, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Result:
England 0 Portugal 0
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)
Company profile
Name: Thndr
Started: October 2020
Founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: pre-seed of $800,000
Funding stage: series A; $20 million
Investors: Tiger Global, Beco Capital, Prosus Ventures, Y Combinator, Global Ventures, Abdul Latif Jameel, Endure Capital, 4DX Ventures, Plus VC, Rabacap and MSA Capital
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The years Ramadan fell in May
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
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THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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