Malaysia is reportedly shutting down Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School
The Malaysian government has ordered the closure of Balaji Srinivasan’s 'Network School,' a startup-focused community project. Srinivasan, who is planning to build a new 'network state,' intends to relocate the program to Kazakhstan following licensing issues.
Why it matters
This highlights the regulatory challenges faced by experimental 'network state' projects that attempt to operate outside traditional sovereign frameworks.
The Malaysian government has ordered the shutdown of a startup-centric community called the Network School, according to The Wall Street Journal .
Billing itself as “a frontier community for techno-optimists,” the Network School reportedly grew out of entrepreneur and investor Balaji Srinivasan’s conviction that the United States is in irreversible decline; Srinivasan has said his goal is “to start a new country.”
So the Network School is supposed to represent the first step in a seven-stage plan (outlined in Srinivasan’s book “The Network State” ) for building a new society. Based in an abandoned Malaysian hotel, the WSJ described the program as “part tech incubator, part self-improvement retreat.” Attendees, however, complained about moldy rooms, as well as a dearth of women and nightlife.
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