A Splinternet Solution: Empowering Internet Users, by Internet Users
A Splinternet Solution: Empowering Internet Users, by Internet Users
Splintercon this year focused on Internet shutdowns and technologies that could help with restoring and preserving Internet connectivity. It was held in June, but the topics are as fresh as ever.
The projects presented during Splintercon were intriguing and very creative. When we got to the most interesting part of the day which was testing a shutdown and practicing how to get out of a shutdown, even those with the best technical knowledge and expertise said they couldn’t do it, it would take them two hours and a lot of work. We witnessed how Bangeladeshies faced the same problem later on during the recent uprising.
The experience and as the Bangladesh events were unfolding made me think as countries around the world use more and more blunt and disproportionate approaches to control access to the Internet and services that operate on the Internet; we have to come up with more alternatives to connectivity at the infrastructure level. While I don’t lose hope in convincing more reasonable governments not to use censorship tools to control the Internet and their users (some call this digital sovereignty), after attending Splintercon I have come to believe that we need to take several routes to keep the Internet free: provide alternatives to Internet access and infrastructure providers, enable and empower the “ordinary” users not only to use the Internet but become a strong node that others can use and rely on, use research and advocacy to illustrate how using censorship and akin to shut down models can hamper the free Internet.
Satellite Internet: there were many interesting projects that used satellite and satellite Internet to overcome connectivity problems during shutdowns. There are, however, technical and policy issues surrounding providing satellite Internet to countries with severe cases of Internet shutdowns.The Internet community is still shy about advocating for governing satellite Internet in a multistakeholder manner and bringing the governance of satellite Internet outside of the mandate of ITU or treat ITU as one stakeholder. There are also projects that help people connect to the Internet by using traditional satellite stations and devices. Yet again, we need to improve governance mechanisms for these services as well, preventing them from being excluded from the state-owned satellite stations or creating stations that do not rely on a single nation-state.
Faster links and alternatives to critical Internet infrastructure: Currently, standard Internet protocols provide the scalability and interoperability that underpin the global Internet, but these are increasingly under attack by nation-states. What if we could design alternative protocols that remain secure and interoperable while resisting these attacks? By standardizing such alternatives through institutions like the IETF, we could not only preserve the unity of the Internet but also enhance its resilience and make it more resistant to censorship
Diversity of providers, Lower barrier to entry, Tech sharing: some of the most interesting and thought provoking presentations mentioned a few themes that the field needs to work on. There should be diversity of providers to strengthen the nodes, there should be low entry barriers to becoming an access node and the community should share the technology through outreach. Sometimes the problem is that the technology is there, it’s being operated but nobody actually knows about it.
Overall, to avoid splinternet, we have to enable and empower every user of the Internet to become an independent node that can help others to connect to the Internet. We need to take manifold strategies in re-decentralizing, re-distributing and re-innovating the Internet and its critical properties. All of this has to happen at a global level to ensure that the Internet remains to be for everyone.
Splintercon will have a meeting during the Global Gathering in Lisbon. Make sure to say hi!
