Russia’s war in Ukraine is hastening the arrival of the “splinternet” (also referred to as cyber-balkanization or Internet balkanization), a forced division of cyberspace under the control of competing political blocs, France’s digital affairs envoy, Henri Verdier said.
As Russia accelerates domestic online censorship and Ukraine calls for Russia to be taken offline, Verdier said any transition by Russia to move toward an independent Internet “would have very severe consequences.” He warned that nation-states might be more tempted to launch devastating cyberattacks they were sure they would be insulated from the results.
“Today if I break the Russian Internet, probably I will break my own Internet, because it’s the same,” Verdier said, arguing the shared nature of the World Wide Web protected all users from losing service.
Photo: Pixabay 照片：Pixabay
“If we have two or three or four Internets, the temptation to disconnect the other will be very high,” warned Verdier, adding that authoritarian countries could try to take democratic countries offline if such mutual dependence were lost.
The comments from Verdier, who visited Washington to discuss the war with his counterparts at the US Department of State, the National Security Council, underscore growing concern that Russia could realize its suspected intention to establish a more “sovereign” Internet. Web policy experts, geopolitical analysts and individual web users in Moscow previously suggested that Russian leadership would use the war to advance such plans.
Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia has sped up its Internet isolation, increasing domestic online censorship by blocking Meta Inc.’s Facebook and Instagram, and limiting Twitter Inc., for example. Companies such as Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Netflix Inc. have also limited their presence, while some foreign Internet service providers have started to withdraw services.
Verdier said he was worried by attempts “to weaponize institutional governance of the Internet.” “I feel we could be close to the fragmentation of the Internet,” he said. “My main concern is...will the unique, neutral, multi-stakeholder, free Internet survive this crisis? I’m not sure.”
A senior US State Department official said the acceleration toward the splinternet was “everything that Putin has ever wanted,” saying his attempt to establish sovereign boundaries in cyberspace was intended to control his people. “He wanted a new Iron Curtain; that’s what he’s doing. He just found an easy way to do it, where everybody’s helping him.”
“A lot of authoritarian countries would quite like a ‘Great Firewall of China’ model but didn’t have that foresight; now some are trying to reverse-engineer it,” said Emily Taylor, research associate at the Oxford Internet Institute, referring to Beijing’s extensive ecosystem of controls that block online content.
(Bloomberg)
法國數位事務特使昂西‧費迪耶表示，俄羅斯在烏克蘭的戰爭正加速「分裂網」的到來，「分裂網」（或稱「網路巴爾幹化」）是在相互競爭的政治集團控制下，被強制分割的網路空間。
在俄羅斯加強其境內網路審查，以及烏克蘭呼籲將俄羅斯斷網之際，費迪耶表示，俄羅斯走向網路獨立的任何轉變「都將產生非常嚴重的後果」。他警告說，民族國家在確定自己不會被後果影響後，更有可能會發動毀滅性的網路攻擊。
「今天如果我破壞俄羅斯的網路，我說不定也破壞了自己的網路，因為這是同一個網路」，費迪耶表示，他認為全球資訊網的共享性質保護了所有用戶，使其免於斷網。
「如果我們有兩個或三個或四個網路，那麼去切斷另一個網路的誘惑將非常大」，費迪耶警告，並補充說，若失去了這種相互依賴性，威權國家可能會試圖切斷民主國家的網路。
費迪耶造訪了華盛頓特區，與其對等單位美國國務院及國家安全委員會討論這場戰爭，他的評論突顯人們愈發擔憂俄羅斯可能將其包藏之意圖付諸實行，建立一個更加「主權獨立」的網路。莫斯科的網路政策專家、地緣政治分析家與個人網路用戶先前即表示，俄羅斯領導層會利用戰爭來推進這類計畫。
自莫斯科入侵烏克蘭以來，俄羅斯加快了其網路隔絕，例如透過封鎖Meta公司的臉書與Instagram，以及對推特的限制來加強境內之網路審查。蘋果、微軟及Netflix等公司也縮減其在俄羅斯之服務，一些外國網路服務提供商也已開始撤出。
費迪耶表示，他對試圖「將網路的治理制度武器化」感到擔憂。「我覺得我們可能接近網路的碎片化」，他說。「我主要擔心的是……獨一無二、中立、有多方利害人關係、自由的網路能否度過這場危機？我不確定」。
美國國務院一名高級官員表示，使網路加速分裂就是「普亭所想要的一切」，說普亭試圖在網路空間建立主權邊界，目的在於控制其人民。「他想要一個新的鐵幕；這就是他正在做的事。 他剛找到了一個簡單的方法來實行，每個人都在助他一臂之力」。
「許多威權國家很喜歡『中國防火牆』模式，但先前並未預見有此需求；現在有些國家正試圖進行逆向工程」，牛津網路研究所研究員艾蜜莉‧泰勒表示，她指的是北京廣泛封鎖網路內容的控制生態系統。
（台北時報林俐凱編譯）
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