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* '''Character:''' Whether fragmentation is generally positive, negative, or neutral
* '''Character:''' Whether fragmentation is generally positive, negative, or neutral
==Technical Fragmentation==
==Types of Fragmentation==
===Technical Fragmentation===
When the Internet concept was first articulated, a guiding vision was that
every device on the Internet should be able to exchange packets with any
other device. Universal connectivity was assumed to be a primary benefit. But
there are a variety of ways in which the original concept has been eroded
through a complex evolutionary process that has unfolded slowly but is
gathering pockets of steam in the contemporary era.
Four issue-areas are reviewed, including Internet addressing, interconnection,
naming and security. Within these categories, 12 kinds of fragmentation of
varying degrees of significance are identified:
1. Network Address Translation
2. IPv4 and IPv6 incompatibility and the dual-stack requirement
3. Routing corruption
4. Firewall protections
5. Virtual private network isolation and blocking
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6. TOR “onion space” and the “dark web”
7. Internationalized Domain Name technical errors
8. Blocking of new gTLDs
9. Private name servers and the split-horizon DNS
10. Segmented Wi-Fi services in hotels, restaurants, etc.
11. Possibility of significant alternate DNS roots
12. Certificate authorities producing false certificates
==Governmental Fragmentation==
===Governmental Fragmentation===
The most common imagery of “governmental fragmentation” is of the global
public Internet being divided into digitally bordered “national Internets”.
Movement in the direction of national segmentation could entail, inter alia,
establishing barriers that impede Internet technical functions, or block the flow
of information and e-commerce over the infrastructure. Pressure and trends in
this direction do exist, as do counter-pressures.
Six issue-areas are reviewed, including: content and censorship; e-commerce
and trade; national security; privacy and data protection; data localization; and
fragmentation as an overarching national strategy. Within these categories,
10 kinds of fragmentation of varying degrees of significance are identified:
1. Filtering and blocking websites, social networks or other resources offering
undesired contents
2. Attacks on information resources offering undesired contents
3. Digital protectionism blocking users’ access to and use of key platforms
and tools for electronic commerce
4. Centralizing and terminating international interconnection
5. Attacks on national networks and key assets
6. Local data processing and/or retention requirements
7. Architectural or routing changes to keep data flows within a territory
8. Prohibitions on the transborder movement of certain categories of data
9. Strategies to construct “national Internet segments” or “cybersovereignty”
10.International frameworks intended to legitimize restrictive practices
==Commercial Fragmentation==
===Commercial Fragmentation===
A variety of critics have charged that certain commercial practices by
technology companies also may contribute to Internet fragmentation. The
nature of the alleged fragmentation often pertains to the organization of
specific markets and digital spaces and the experiences of users that choose
to participate in them, but sometimes it can impact the technical infrastructure
and operational environments for everyone. Whether or not one considers
commercial practices as meriting the same level of concern as, say, data
localization is of course a matter of perspective. Certainly there are significant
concerns from the perspectives of many Internet users, activists and
competing providers in global markets. As such, the issues are on the table in
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the growing global dialogue about fragmentation, and they are therefore
discussed here.
Five issue-areas are reviewed, including: peering and standardization;
network neutrality; walled gardens; geo-localization and geo-blocking; and
infrastructure-related intellectual property protection. Within these categories,
10 kinds of fragmentation of varying degrees of significance are identified:
1. Potential changes in interconnection agreements
2. Potential proprietary technical standards impeding interoperability in the
IoT
3. Blocking, throttling, or other discriminatory departures from network
neutrality
4. Walled gardens
5. Geo-blocking of content
6. Potential use of naming and numbering to block content for the purpose of
intellectual property protection
==References==
==References==