Eaten by the Internet: Putting Internet Infrastructure Power on Your Radar

Corinne Cath is a post-doctoral researcher at the Programmable Infrastructure Group at the University of Delft and part of the ALGOSOC consortium. She is also a fellow at the critical infrastructure lab and an affiliate at the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, and editor of Eaten by the Internet, published by Meatspace Press. To understand power in the contemporary tech industry, we must look closely at the internet’s often-invisible infrastructure. This sizable domain, from material components such as cell antennas, clouds, chips, data servers, and satellites to less tangible but equally crucial standards and software components, including the operating systems, browsers and computing power that enables connectivity, rarely attracts attention unless something breaks down. And even then, many internet users won’t ask why.  This is surprising, given how often internet infrastructure—rather than data or content that is accessed through this network—features in current debates about Big Tech. Recent examples include the ongoing international struggle between the US and China over advanced semiconductors, or chips; the Russian take-over of the Ukrainian internet, by forcing local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to reroute traffic over Russian infrastructure. Or the recent raid by the French competition authority of Nvidia’s offices—a dominant player in the AI hardware and software market. These technologies and companies are key to the functioning of connected devices, including phones and laptops—and they also play a crucial role in the ability of companies to use and train generative AI models, like ChatGPT. Only a limited…Eaten by the Internet: Putting Internet Infrastructure Power on Your Radar