Russia Is About To Turn Off The Internet

[Skybird]

While it also has something to do with information and communicition control of own citizens like they do it with the web in China already, in principle it is clever what Russia tries to gain in ability there: independence from the US' web control and dominance. Its consistent with their policy of becoming independent from the dollar as well (they have sold practically all their dollar reserve and bonds).



Europe dreams of acchieving the same, but does nto come to terms. Before he fell off the stage, Germany's economy minister Altmeier had a speech at a conference about the attempt to raise a European cloud service to break the monopoly of the Ameican compoanies here. It is also about data security of course, because you can take it as granted that the NSA tries to monitor the cloud space on American servers by routine - last but not least for economic spionage and material that could be used against European politics and economics and companies. And since Lil Boy at the latest it should be clear that Europe cannot trust the US anmore.

[ikalugin]

I wouldn't say that we are going for true independence, but we do want to have key services up if push comes to shove due to how important they are now adays for normal functioning of the country, even in emergencies.


For example think about how even back bone phone networks work - they essentially use the internet like networks.

[captainadccdacaptain]

North Korea supposedly has its own intranet, so it wouldn't be too far off for them to do

[Catfish]

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...ucla-kleinrock

"Artificial intelligence, machine learning, facial recognition, biometrics and other advanced technologies could be used by governments to weaken democratic institutions.
The balkanization of the internet is now conceivable as firewalls spring up around national networks."

[mapuc]

My thoughts or wonder was more in the technical area

Not in the political area.

It could be as ikalugin said in his first comment.

To have a internet running even if the ordinary have been shut down by other countries outside Russia.

Markus

[Catfish]

But it is a good argument with the side-effect of "protecting" your people from other peoples' (read: nations) views.
Of course a country should be independent, but why not habe two national nets, one for services and one for international information.
The second the international one is turned off should tell you something is going wrong in your country.

[ikalugin]

Originally Posted by Catfish

But it is a good argument with the side-effect of "protecting" your people from other peoples' (read: nations) views.
Of course a country should be independent, but why not habe two national nets, one for services and one for international information.
The second the international one is turned off should tell you something is going wrong on your ****ry.

The issue that you are missing is the centralisation of the key internet services in the US.

This provides USG (and other US actors) not only with a unique information gathering tool (that they are known to exploit) but also with a unique influence tool - those companies can (and do) enact political editorial campaighns abroad (and at home), which are by far more powerful than any stories you have heard about the foreighn bots or political ads influencing US politics.

Should countries attempt to limit such influence, especially if it is hostile and harmful, such as FB stuffing their entire moderation teams (in Ru language sector) with Ukrainian nationalistic political activists?
Should they promote alternative services, so the users can atleast choose their poison?