DIGITAL LIFE

Splinternet: How digital blackouts that block web access are becoming cheaper and easier to impose

During the digital blackout imposed by Iran in January, the population could still access something resembling the internet. It was possible to exchange messages on government-monitored apps, watch videos on local platforms, and read state news. What was not possible was accessing international media or disseminating images and reports about the repression that left thousands dead in one of the most violent weeks in the country's recent history.

The analysis comes from The Guardian, which points to the advance of the so-called "splinternet": the fragmentation of the global network into national versions, controlled by governments.

The Iranian case is not isolated. More than half of Russia's regions already operate with limited access to mobile internet, restricted to government-approved content. China maintains its "great firewall," blocking global platforms like Google and The Guardian itself. Authorities in Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have also been testing targeted outages.

For nearly two decades, the United States funded censorship circumvention tools that made dividing the internet expensive and complex. These programs helped maintain the network as a "global common good," where information accessible in London could also be read in Delhi, Johannesburg, or São Paulo. Today, this model is under pressure.

Censorship technology becomes exportable...On one hand, cuts or redirections in American funding weaken anti-censorship initiatives. On the other, blocking and filtering technologies are being improved and exported.

Chinese companies sell equipment that allows precise control over data traffic, enabling governments to define what enters and leaves the country. According to the Guardian, similar technologies underpin the current Iranian digital control model.

For experts, the risk is clear: when governments want to avoid international scrutiny, they shut down the internet.

Fragmentation as State Policy...Building an isolated internet is not simple. The network was conceived as decentralized and interdependent. Still, the Iranian example suggests that fragmentation is becoming more viable and potentially cheaper.

Russia and other authoritarian regimes have been working for years to create national versions of the internet, capable of operating autonomously if disconnected from the rest of the world.

In parallel, the discourse on "sovereign data," "sovereign AI," and, in some cases, "sovereign internet" is growing in the West. European countries advocate keeping critical infrastructure and databases, such as health records, within their own borders.

Although this strategy is seen as protection against the growing influence of American big tech companies, critics warn that the nationalization of infrastructure could facilitate abuses if authoritarian governments take power.

The future of the internet as a common space...Digital activists have been pressuring the European Union to assume some of the funding previously provided by the US for anti-censorship technologies. But there are doubts about resources and political priority.

In a scenario of increasing geopolitical tensions, defense and traditional security tend to occupy the top of the agenda. Nevertheless, what is at stake is the global informational environment: the shared factual basis that underpins markets, international politics, and even the functioning of democracies.

If this trend consolidates, the internet may cease to be a global and open network and become a mosaic of walled national gardens, each with its own rules, filters, and versions of reality.

Splinternet (or fragmented/Balkanized internet) is the division of the global network into distinct national or regional sub-networks, driven by political, commercial, and security factors. Governments establish digital sovereignty, censoring content and restricting access to foreign platforms to control information, resulting in digital "islands" like the Chinese Great Firewall.

Key aspects of Splinternet (below):

-Geopolitical fragmentation: Cyberspace is dividing along national borders, with countries like China, Russia, and Iran creating their own versions of the network.

-Censorship and control: States use technology to block social networks (e.g., Facebook, X/Twitter) and news sites, aiming for social control and national security.

-Accelerated by nationalism: The process is driven by geopolitical tensions, where the Ukraine-Russia conflict intensified Russian digital isolation.

-Economic impact: Local companies emerge (e.g., Tencent, Yandex) at the expense of Western giants (Google, Meta), also fragmenting the digital market.

Consequences: The "splinternet" limits the free flow of information, promotes state propaganda, increases misinformation, and fragments users' worldviews.

mundophone