Brazil Is Unplugging From U.S. Internet

1 November 2014

 - Brazil was not bluffing last year, when it said that it wanted to disconnect from the United States-controlled internet due to the NSA’s obscenely invasive surveillance tactics. The country is about to stretch a cable from the northern city of Fortaleza all the way to Portugal, and they’ve vowed not to use a single U.S. vendor to do it.

At first glance, Brazil’s plan to disconnect from the U.S. internet just seemed silly. The country was not happy when news emerged that the NSA’s tentacles stretched all the way down to Brazil, and the NSA had been spying on the Brazilian government’s email for years.

Brazil is investing $185 million on the cable project alone. And not a penny of that sum will go to an American company.The implications of Brazil distancing itself from the US internet are huge, and the economic consequences could be tremendously destructive for the USA.