17 March 2022
Last year, President Biden gathered leaders from around the world for the Summit for Democracy, and announced a subsequent “year of action” for governments to commit to ways in which they will strengthen democracy at home and abroad. Russia’s tactics remind us how central technology must be to this effort: for global leaders to advance an affirmative vision for an open, interoperable internet that is free from digital censorship, and support technologies that protect individual users’ rights. As Putin works to pull the Russian people behind a new Silicon Curtain, and other authoritarians follow suit, global leaders and companies have a common duty to resist.
