The Guardian view on the splinternet: where China led, Iran and others are eagerly following | Editorial

Authoritarian states are increasingly shutting off or throttling access to the internet, creating separate spheres in a realm built on connection

https://www.theguardian.com/world/china">China boasts of having the world’s largest population of internet users: 1.125 billion by the end of 2025, according to https://english.www.gov.cn/archive/statistics/202602/05/content_WS698442cac6d00ca5f9a08edc.html">official figures.

But as one joke has it, the Great Firewall – blocking not only politically sensitive material but also global tech firms such as Google and Meta – has produced what looks more like the world’s largest intranet.

Beijing is not an anomaly, but a pioneer.

Its extraordinary investment in the apparatus of “cyber sovereignty” – others would call it censorship and repression – is guiding other authoritarian countries.

A realm defined by connection is fragmenting not just from commercial greed and filter bubbles but due to state fiat, birthing the https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/21/splinternet-online-shutdowns-are-getting-cheaper-and-easier-to-impose-iran-blackout">splinternet.