Vladimir Putin wants to take Russia off the global Internet in case of an emergency, like war or anti-government protests, according to recent reports — reports which, of course, the Kremlin denies.
It’s easy to dismiss this move as the madness of Vlad (as German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the man is living “in another world”), except that in the calm, well-mannered halls of European governments, leaders are also calling for building similar Internet walls against outside countries — though, thankfully, not against their own people.
In February, Merkel and French President Francois Hollande discussed ways to create a “European Internet.” This week, representatives of 16 European countries called for the EU to take measures to protect their citizens’ data from outside countries.
The enemy they are most seeking to protect that data against is the United States.
“The EU must impose its data protection standards on third countries, otherwise they will do it first. I am thinking particularly of the United States,” said the Luxembourg representative Viviane Loschester.
It’s no secret that the NSA spying scandal has made Europeans very protective of their data. In Germany, when the news broke that the United States had tapped Merkel’s phone 700,000 Germans signed up for encrypted messaging services — that same day.
Now, a September Der Spiegel report states that the NSA’s “Treasure Map” program had infiltrated carrier Deutsche Telekom, gaining access to the private information of millions of DT users, is prompting a new scramble for secure data services based in Germany. The German government made its own privacy move in June by canceling a contract with U.S.-based Verizon Communications in favor of DT (which incidentally is partly owned by the German government), saying it wanted more “technological sovereignty.”
At the EU level, punitive actions are being discussed against companies caught sending personal data outside the EU without permission, including fines equal to €100 million ($127 million) or 5% of the company’s global turnover.
The European privacy efforts are not at the same level as Russia attempting to cut its entire Internet off from the wider world, but they do mark a new political stage in the development of the Internet, where countries are trying to build virtual borders. It is all part of a spectrum of isolation: one that moves from in-country data centers and restrictions on outside companies to cutting off those companies or even the outside Internet entirely.
The ability of European countries to create walls to stop U.S. spying is questionable as long as the Internet continues to be dominated by U.S.-based companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter. That is unless they want to exit the global Internet entirely, Putin-style.
Given that the Internet is known for being lawless and hard to control, there’s also some question whether Russia can accomplish its goal of Internet isolation. Observers seem to come down on both sides, but some countries have had success in restricting Internet use recently — the semi-successful attempt to shut down Twitter and YouTube in Turkey this spring comes to mind.
Even if Putin cannot create a Russia-only Internet, he can probably disconnect his country entirely. After all, Russia has already done that once to another country. Just ask Estonia.
Need more European telecom news? Check out our EMEA coverage and follow me on Twitter!
