The internet was supposed to make borders matter less.

Instead, governments learned how to build them into the network itself.

It began reasonably enough. Cyberattacks threatened hospitals, banks and infrastructure. Fraud became harder to distinguish from reality. Governments wanted sensitive data kept closer to home. Parents demanded safer digital spaces for children. Foreign interference made nations question who should be allowed to shape their elections.

The solutions worked.

Digital identity reduced fraud. National cyber gateways stopped attacks. Data localisation strengthened sovereignty. Foreign platforms became accountable to domestic law.

Then the architecture began to change.

Websites needed permission to enter national markets. Data crossed digital customs posts. Search engines showed different realities depending on jurisdiction. Regional networks replaced the global web. Circumventing the borders became an offence.

Eventually, almost everyone remained connected—and almost nobody was connected to the same internet.

The Broken Internet is a speculative future history of how an open global network could gradually fracture into national and regional digital territories, not through one act of authoritarian control, but through decades of decisions that often seemed sensible at the time.

A dystopian history of a future that never happened—but might feel disturbingly plausible.