The New York Times Editorial Board responds to recent comments made by Eric Schmidt, former Google chief executive and Alphabet chairman. Looking ahead in the next 10 to 15 years, Schmidt predicts the internet will split in two: one led by China; the other by the U.S. The board, however, says "he too quickly dismisses the European internet that is coalescing around the European Union's ever-heightening regulation of technology platforms." The column notes, "all three spheres — Europe, America and China — are generating sets of rules, regulations and norms that are beginning to rub up against one another." The combination of powerful tech platforms with "the dismal state of international cooperation across the world" could, the board argues, lead to a Balkanized internet and become "little more than just another front on the new cold war." (Registration may be required to access this story.)
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