Balkanisation of Internet Begins with Russia enacting a Law

1st November 2019 the legal seed of Balkanisation of Internet is sowed, a controversial new law took effect in Russia: The so-called "sovereign internet" law, which mandates the creation of an independent internet for Russia, thus creating an island in the cyber space. Is it for availability of Internet during the times of cyber threats or is it for exerting sovereignty at the cost of censoring the Internet remains to be seen. . It was hardly a surprise when the Iranian government  also had announced in May that it has installed a cyberdefense shield and wants to construct “halal Internet”. This germ is in the heads of France and Canada too and China has the infamous great firewall doing its fencing already.

Moscow has just given itself the power to erect a digital or cyber fence  around its internal network. How effective is the fence and isolation only time will tell us, but the point is made and it is made legally now.

President Putin signed into law, new rules that would enable the creation of a national network that can operate independently from the rest of the world. Among other things, the law allows Roskomnadzor, Russia's telecoms agency, to shut the country off from external traffic exchange, creating a purely Russian web.

The government has said the regulations are part of an effort to protect Russia by creating the ability to sustain a fenced-off national network, in the event that a foreign state interferes with Russian cyberspace. The official newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta said the law coming into force should not affect internet users, but it "will ensure the availability of communication services in Russia in case of threats."

Yes, this could make it easier for the Russian government to censor, reroute or switch off internet traffic to block access to politically sensitive content and online extremism. To control internet traffic, and to detect content, the law requires all internet providers in Russia to install special hardware provided by Roskomnadzor.

That would enable the use of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology, which involves data processing that looks in detail at the contents of the data being sent. DPI, for instance, is used in by China for its Great Firewall to filter content it deems harmful to Chinese citizens.

The Telegram ban, however, showed the limits of Russian efforts to regulate cyberspace. A court in Moscow banned Telegram after the company refused to provide encryption keys to the FSB, but founder Pavel Durov said Telegram would use "built-in methods" to bypass the ban. Telegram, as of date is still widely available in Russia.

Russia has also circulated  a draft treaty in UN that would allow countries to solidify their hold over information and communications technology within their borders, enabling some countries to further restrict activities and speech on the internet, while also stressing governments’ sovereignty in cybercrime investigations. 

Just as the Ottoman Empire and Yugoslavia fractured (balkanised) into a series of smaller states, the same thing is happening to so called,  the “world wide web.” Instead of a global cyber space, the cyber boundaries have started to mirror the political and commercial boundaries of the sovereign states and Russia is leading the scene. 

Author Is Ph.D. (International Cyber Law and Cyber Warfare) and a Renowned practicing Cyber Lawyer . His PhD Research results has predicted that the Internet would be balkanised .

Email: prashant.mali@cyberlawconsulting.com