This talk examines how the manufacturing and installation of global internet infrastructure is bound up in political formations. In particular, it focuses on the supply chain for undersea cables. In contrast to the flexibility and modularity of many global supply chains, submarine cable supply remains anchored in a small set of locations and companies. Describing the suppliers of transoceanic cables, the talk foregrounds these companies’ historical ties to governments and how this continues to play a role in their centrality to the global internet. The talk also unpacks how rumors about hidden spying equipment in cable systems, alongside backlash by the American and Australian governments, made it difficult for the Chinese cable supplier Huawei Marine to break into the transoceanic cable industry. Collectively these cases show how the cable supply chain resembles the nineteenth and twentieth century colonial cable system more than the contemporary network society.

To attend the talk online, go to https://bluejeans.com/835519705.