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Why do western countries dominate the internet? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 years ago by Amicchan@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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How are other countries, like Ireland, not popular on the internet?

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[–] Looki@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

So are you arguing that it would be better if Chinese was the lingua franca of the internet instead of English? Or are you proposing some other solution?

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I'm pointing out that English is already being displaced as the dominant language in the world, just like French was displaced earlier. The term lingua franca incidentally comes from French being the dominant language at one point.

I'm not passing any value judgments here regarding what would be better or worse. I'm simply observing the fact that most of the world population doesn't speak English, and that it's entirely possible that English could be displaced as the dominant language for international communication.

I don't know what the solution will be. Perhaps we'll all be learning Chinese, or translation tools become sufficiently robust that everyone can use their own language, or the internet will further split into different language zones that don't interact with one another. Incidentally, we're already seeing this happen with Chinese internet that's largely separate from western one.