Why it matters: One reason the Internet remains a good place for freedom of expression and governments have a difficult time censoring and controlling it, is the very language that networks adhere to in order to facilitate communications between them. However, Chinese companies such as Huawei think that we need a new, "more dynamic IP addressing system," one that might also lead to a less open and free Internet.
Huawei, and by extension, China isn't content with the TCP/IP communication protocol that governs how data moves around on the Internet, so in 2019 they issued a
proposal for a replacement at an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) meeting.
The new system, dubbed "
New IP" represents a
radical change to the way Internet works, and the company claims it solves some of the technical issues that make it unsuitable for a hyperconnected world with a swarm of devices and sensors that need to power everything from augmented reality to self-driving cars and all manner of "
implicit computing."
New IP would supposedly enable more reliable communications and handle the technical requirements of the fast-growing digital landscape, which is expected to balloon to one trillion Internet-connected devices by 2035. And while that sounds good on paper, there's also a touch of authoritarianism in the proposal, with several fine-grained controls that would lead to centralization, as well as tracking and censorship at the whim of governments.
