The Internet’s Influence On An Increasingly International World

The internet’s influence, the consequences of it’s misuse, and it’s impact on the world as a whole.

Although politics and geopolitics still have the biggest influence on international relations, the internet is their closest contender. Not only is internet technology the most feasible way to communicate over distance — it’s also a nearly limitless medium for entertainment, business, international industry, and the execution of national or foreign governmental affairs. With social media at the vanguard of contemporary society, the internet is quickly becoming a ubiquitous component of daily life for everyone, everywhere— if it isn’t already — and its lasting impact will be monumental.

The Internet as an International Influence

As of 2018, almost 4 billion people use the internet, with nearly 3 billion people active on social media. Through platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter, it serves as a crossroads of global culture and society — people in even the most remote places of the world can connect and communicate, unbound by nationality or distance, in an interminable meeting place that functions almost like a nation-state itself (a constituency of individuals, living in various geophysical locations, conforming to the legislation set forth by its system administrators). Some users communicate with officials at the highest levels of political office, and alternatively, those officials communicate back — US President Donald Trump’s tweets are even being considered ‘official statements’ of his administration.

However, when it comes to international communications, the internet presents a paradox. Although it should proliferate the interactions between people, regardless of nationality or locale, this isn’t always the case. Censorship methods or the prevention of open access are ways for groups in power to maintain control — Chinese citizens once enjoyed free internet access, but that access has become highly controlled by an advanced system of internet censors, colloquially known as the Great Firewall of China. The United States has also attempted to cede internet neutrality to internet service providers, and research conducted at the University of Oxford shows that Russian officials employ online messaging bots to help “insulate […] leadership from any domestic challengers and aid in […] foreign policy ventures”.

Consequences of the Internet’s Use and Misuse

Oftentimes, technological innovations lead to unintended consequence — from phosgene to the atomic bomb, this is a lesson humanity has learned time and again. The same is true for the internet, and with every advancement, so too is there a propagation of online enterprises fundamentally disadvantageous to the international world as a whole. In 2014, a hack of the American-based Sony Pictures (believed to be North Korean in origin) cost the company more than $100 million. This attack would have otherwise been considered an act of war. In 2016, unstoppable ransomware siphoned a combined $1 billion in funds from people and institutions all over the globe. The internet is turning into virtual battleground without regulation — a reality confronted by a Foreign Policy publication entitled “In Cyberwarfare, There Are No Rules”:

There is no functional difference between a foreign soldier taking an ax to refrigerant tanks to destroy 4,000 eggs and embryos and that same soldier using a keyboard to remotely shut down the facility’s temperature maintenance protocols from 6,000 miles away. The two acts are equally heinous on a moral level. The uncertainty in attribution and the lack of an easily identified villain may make the latter seem the province of science fiction. But it is not.

[…] Cyberattacks — some egregious, some mundane — are happening now, quietly and unnoticed by the public.

The battlefield is expanding, and its encroachment has already reached deep into media politics. Internet platforms are especially attractive to national and international news publications — between false information dissemination or propaganda, many political entities use the media in an effort to sway public opinion. A 2004 analysis on media and public perception found that negative media coverage of a foreign nation was correlated with negative perceptions of the nation being covered, meaning that media outlets can effectively influence how a different nation is perceived, and it doesn’t always matter if published stories are truthful or not — anyone with an open internet connection can contribute to a tumult of online embellishment, lies, and sensationalism. This phenomenon of ‘fake news’ is being called one of the biggest threats to global democracy.

The Internet’s Impact

The internet’s impact on the world is already profound and just as pervasive. It is progressing with relentless exponentiation, and half of the global population is now connected through a myriad amount of electronic devices — billions upon billions of bytes of information are being passed every second. Whether its politics, economics, art, culture, or society, the internet is truly the most prominent international influence, easily surpassing any invention or event humanity has ever faced before. Its potential to be used as a tool for holistic global growth is nearly equal to its propensity for limitless destruction — depending on how it is wielded. Hopefully, it will be the former.

Literary References

Bloomfeld News. (2018, November 5). The Great Firewall of China. Washington Post. Retrieved April 22, 2019, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-great-firewall-of-china/2018/11/05/5dc0f85a-e16d-11e8-ba30-a7ded04d8fac_story.html?utm_term=.df755aab9476

Brief History of the Internet. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.internetsociety.org/internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet/

Holmes, S. M., & Casteneda, H. (2016).43(1), 13–24. doi:10.1111/amet.12259

Samuel Woolley and Philip N. Howard, Eds. Working Paper 2017.3. Oxford, UK: Project on

Computational Propaganda. comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk<http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/>. 32 pp.

Sergey Sanovich, “Computational Propaganda in Russia: The Origins of Digital Disinformation.”

Wanta, W., Golan, G., & Lee, C. (2004). Agenda Setting and International News: Media Influence on Public Perceptions of Foreign Nations. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 81(2), 364–377. https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900408100209

Wolfsfeld, G., Segev, E., & Sheafer, T. (2013). Social Media and the Arab Spring: Politics Comes First. The International Journal of Press/Politics, 18(2), 115–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/1940161212471716