CJK Radical Net Four

It represents a form of the Chinese net radical.

A radical is the component under which a dictionary groups a character for lookup. The net radical is number 122 in the traditional Kangxi system. It has several written forms; ⺴ records one of them as a symbol in its own right. This lets reference works discuss a component separately from a complete character.

If someone sends you ⺴, its established role is to identify that component. It does not by itself say “net” or “Internet” as an ordinary Chinese word would.

Behind the radical is a picture of a net

The net family goes back to drawings of a mesh for catching fish, birds or animals. Early forms survive in ancient Chinese inscriptions carved on animal bones and turtle shells. This is the history of the radical family, not evidence that the exact modern symbol ⺴ appeared there.

The full character 網, written 网 in simplified Chinese, can mean a physical net and also a network or the Internet. Those meanings belong to the complete character, not automatically to every radical form.