Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government via a teleconference call at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence, outside Moscow, on September 29, 2020.
ALEXEY DRUZHININ | AFP | Getty Images
The global Internet domain non-profit known as ICANN confirmed Tuesday that it has received a letter from the Ukrainian government asking it to remove Russian domains from the global Internet.
“We can confirm that we’ve received the letter and are reviewing it,” said spokeswoman Angelina Lopez. “We have no further comment at this time.”
Rolling Stone magazine reported earlier in the day that the Ukrainian government asked ICANN to “revoke domains issued in Russia and shut down primary Domain Name System servers in the country, a move that would effectively bar access to Russian internet sites, with the potential for knocking the entire country off line.”
The move would be unprecedented and is not likely to happen. But it sparked a robust debate online about whether removing Russia’s access to the global Internet is a good idea or not, and the debate is raising issues for the future of the global economy and of the internet itself.
The pro argument is this: Russia should be hit with the toughest possible sanctions to cripple their economy, and force the Russian people to feel the negative effects of what their government has done.
But the con argument is: This would mostly hit average Russians, who could lose access to much international information about the war and make them more dependent on State TV and government propaganda. Plus, ICANN initiating this move could cause Russia, China, and others to look for ways to move away from the global internet of ICANN and balkanize the internet in ways it may never recover from.
In 2018, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicted that the global internet would eventually split into two, with one sector led by China and the other by the U.S. The Chinese government today already censors internet traffic and has banned companies like Facebook and Google from operating there.
Since 2019, Russia has stepped up its own efforts to control the domestic flow of information, installing new equipment that can block and filter information, according to the New York Times. It slowed down access to Twitter in spring 2021 after accusing the company to be slow to remove certain content.
CNBC has reached out to the Ukrainian government for more information about its request.
