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, From 2016 to 2020, Jacob Helberg led Google's internal global product policy efforts to combat disinformation and foreign interference. During this time, he found himself in the midst of what can only be described as a quickly escalating Cold War between democracy and autocracy. Since the conflict takes place in the murky gray zone over trade routes and fiber optic lines, Helberg calls this developing tech-fueled battle a Gray War. On the front-end, we're fighting to control the software - applications, news information, social media platforms, and more - of what we see on the screens of our computers, tablets and phones, a clash which started out primarily with Russia, but now increasingly includes China and Iran. Even more ominously, we're also engaged in a hidden back-end battle - largely with China - to control the Internet's hardware, which includes devices like cellular phones, satellites, fiber-optic cables, and 5G networks.