There's already the Russian internet and the Chinese internet.

All the "save the children" acts that seem to be going around will probably just accelerate it.

I imagine censorship and firewalls by political powers will only increase in an attempt to "protect" (control) people and that it will make the splits more obvious.

Yeah it seems like all forms of authority are working towards complete control of all things digital. Control of information media like print and broadcast are already established, control of the information flow of the internet is inevitable.

Its already well underway, not just in China and Russia. I think most splits will be enforced by governments but maybe splits on a technology level could deepen if e.g. more people move towards Tor, etc.

"The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men - cries out for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all."

i think it's becoming an inevitabiliy. when you have the EU passing laws preventing data collection and US states like mississippi requiring it, eventually the laws become incompatible and your only options become serving a different site to every jurisdiction or just blocking large swathes of the planet. i think unfortunately we're in the last years of there being a singular "the internet" as things shift from nations reactively geoblocking sites to sites proactively geoblocking themselves

Truly a dangerous time when whole internets are defederating from one another. Will the echo-chambered walled gardens ever fall?

If darknets become a thing, I could see regional intranets start popping up if the general internet doesn't meet peoples needs.

Think about what you could get out of a truely open platform set up by individuals without a megs corp. Could be awesome.

Aw, man, it’s not about a giant rat and martial arts turtles?

It already is the fact. I mean, sure, some of the splinters are smaller, like Lemmy vs. Reddit, or BlueSky vs. Twitter, but they are still splintered and they will never reconcile.

Let's see if I get it: Back to the early 90s?