In 2024, former Coinbase executive Balaji Srinivasan opened something called Network School in Forest City, a mostly empty man-made island off the coast of Johor, Malaysia. The idea behind Network School is simple: it’s a camp to indoctrinate wannabe tech entrepreneurs into his Network State cult, which seeks to replace existing nations with micro-countries run by tech companies.

Network School participants attend “classes,” do group workouts and eat “bunny food” designed by Bryan Johnson, the longevity influencer (and Network State cult member) who has spent millions trying not to die.

Balaji, a former Andreessen Horowitz partner who generally goes by his first name, has described his ideology as “tech Zionism.” The New York-born millionaire, now based in Singapore, is a radical figure with a burning hatred for so-called “legacy” governments. In 2024, I exposed his bizarre vision of the future: a fascistic nightmare in which a “gray tribe” of techies don gray uniforms and purge all “blues”—Democrats—from San Francisco.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Balaji finds himself embroiled in controversy in Malaysia, where the government has launched an investigation into Network School. As we’ll see, it is investigating the wrong threat.

Authorities descended on Network School to check whether it had allowed Israeli citizens to attend. Malaysia, which has no diplomatic ties with Israel, bans Israelis from entering the country without special permission. Questions arose after a pseudonymous account on X spread rumors that Israeli citizens were attending Network School in the Malaysian state of Johor using passports from other countries.