Analyse
Merkel’s statement oversimplifies the timeline of the internet’s adoption. By 2013, the internet was already a well-established global infrastructure (e.g., the World Wide Web had been public since 1991, and over **39% of the world’s population** was online by 2013, per [ITU data](#sources)). Her remark likely referred to the *unprecedented challenges* of digital surveillance (e.g., Snowden revelations) and governance—not the internet’s novelty as a technology. The framing risks implying a lack of prior engagement with digital policy, which contradicts Germany’s longstanding role in EU digital regulations (e.g., data protection directives since the 1990s).
Achtergrond
The statement was made during a press conference with Obama, just weeks after Edward Snowden’s leaks exposed mass surveillance programs like PRISM, which included allegations of U.S. spying on German officials. Merkel’s government had previously pushed for stronger EU data privacy laws, and her comment reflected the tension between technological progress and democratic oversight. However, the internet was not ‘new’ in a literal sense; its societal integration had accelerated since the 2000s with the rise of social media, cloud computing, and mobile internet.
Samenvatting verdict
While Merkel’s phrasing suggested the internet was *entirely* new in 2013, it had in fact been a mainstream, transformative technology for nearly two decades by that point, though its societal and political implications were—and remain—evolving rapidly.