Internet Fragmentation

Internet Fragmentation is the idea that the Internet may be in danger of splitting into a series of cyberspace segments, thus endangering its connectivity.

During the 2015 World Economic Forum, Internet fragmentation was noted as one of the primary concerns facing the future of the internet, due to trends in technological developments, government policies, and commercial practices. Nonetheless, there was no widespread consensus as to its nature or scope.

The launch of the World Economic Forum's multi-year Future of the Internet Initiative (FII) considers Internet fragmentation as one of the primary topics warranting exploration, in the context of the FII's Governance on the Internet project.

Nature of Internet Fragmentation

Working definitions are proposed for three forms of fragmentation:

• Technical Fragmentation: Conditions in the underlying infrastructure that impede the ability of systems to fully interoperate and exchange data packets and of the Internet to function consistently at all end points.
• Governmental Fragmentation: Government policies and actions that constrain or prevent certain uses of the Internet to create, distribute, or access information resources.
• Commercial Fragmentation: Business practices that constrain or prevent certain uses of the Internet to create, distribute, or access information resources.

In each case, fragmentation may vary greatly according to a number of dimensions or attributes. Four primary ones include:

• Occurrence:' Whether a type of fragmentation exists or is merely a potential
• Intentionality: Whether fragmentation is the result of deliberate action or an unintended consequence
• Impact: Whether fragmentation is deep, structural and configurative of large swaths of activity or even the Internet as a whole, or rather more shallow, malleable and applicable to a narrowly bounded set of processes, transactions and actors
• Character: Whether fragmentation is generally positive, negative, or neutral