Session
Berkman Klein Center at Harvard Law (Affiliated - not representing)
Juan Ortiz Freuler, Berkman/USC, Academia
Juan Ortiz Freuler, Berkman/USC, Academia
Rohan Grover, Academia, North America (US)
Rohan Grover, Academia, North America (US)
Rohan Grover, Academia, North America (US)
9. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
17. Partnerships for the Goals
Targets: The relation to SDGs can be summarized in two layers. The primary layer is focused on SDG’s number 9 and 17. Internet fragmentation in general, and in particular attacks on internet infrastructure and communication infrastructure directly undermine the resilience of our infrastructure (SDG 9). In the paper’s conclusion I argue for policies that aim at reducing the likelyhood that these attacks take place– by promoting informational disarmament–as well as policies that increase resillience of the network by reducing the centralization of the internet around a handful of key players. This would be achieved by promoting structural separation across the different layers of the internet stack as well as a more robust approach to antitrust enforcement. Furthermore, the process of fragmentation would directly undermine the ability of governments to collaborate at the speed at which they have been doing so, by creating more friction in the circulation of information globally.
The second layer is focused on indirect impacts. The lack of resilient infrastructure and the friction in the information networks would subsequently limit the ability toa achieve progress on other SDGs, in particular, 4, 8, 10 and 13. A quality education in the 21st century involved access to a broad range of information sources and platforms, and the process of renetworking puts that at risk. The friction in information networks in general and attacks on communication infrastructure in particular can undermine economic growth over the long term as well as create profound negative shocks, similar to those created by the pandemic. Lastly, it is likely that such attacks would affect the peripheral countries the most, either as the locus of such attacks or by their deprioritization in the case of reconstruction funding. Lastly, but perhaps most urgently, fragmentation,as it is commonly understood, would limit the possibility of our information system to operate at the planetary scale our climate problems need it to.
Theater
The format will consist in a 15-20 minute remote presentation followed by questions, comments and discussion
Communication infrastructures are key to the effective deployment of government influence campaigns, be it in the form of public diplomacy, propaganda or information operations. The perceived importance of these communication infrastructure is underlined by the many precedents of their destruction in the context of conflict and interference with them in times of peace. As the internet becomes central to all activities, civil and military, the likelihood that it becomes treated as a military target increases and the broader process of internet fragmentation is fueled. To set a course away from such a path, in this paper I first provide historical snapshots outlining three cases in which communication infrastructures such as telegraph, radio and television were targeted. I then offer an overview of the similarities and differences between the internet and previous infrastructures by discussing the digital lock-outs enacted by internet platforms like Twitter, YouTube and GitHub. The paper concludes that although there are important lessons from the past, the centralization of the internet at the transport, storage and platform layers calls for a clearer delineation of international norms as they apply to information warfare. It also underlines that the forums like Giganet should focus on advancing policies that can both reduce the risk of these attacks as well as the reverberations they might have if they do occur.
The format will consist in a 15-20 minute presentation followed by questions, comments and discussion