ABSTRACT The internet is a pervasive reality yet it’s hard to conceive that it is a created construct with only three decades of the global interconnected web (Roser et al., 2015). By 2018, half the worldwide population were online, on reaching such a critical mass, one asks the question who is it for? This essay argues that the design of the infrastructure of internet and its exploitation is a new kind of power coloniality called digital colonialism (Andres Guadamuz, 2017). I explore unique challenges for Pacific small island states (SIDS) and explore the infrastructure design issues in the face of current pressures for large scale digitalisation policies (Diamana, 2015; Filho et al., 2021; Rossignol, 2014).