Fragmenting the Internet

The government of Kazakhstan recently ordered all Internet domains using the .kz top-level country code to route their traffic to servers physically located in Kazakhstan. In response to that requirement, Google indicated that it would direct traffic away from its google.kz domain and route it to the google.com site, instead. Some have characterized this type of government action as the first step in the fragmentation of the Internet. Government insistence on physical presence in a particular jurisdiction raises issues of operational efficiency and content security. Although it is within the authority of any national government to insist on this type of physical presence, it is a mistake to do so. Many of the opportunities and advantages offered by the Internet can only be fully realized if the network is left free to be organized and configured with minimal government intervention. Fragmentation of the sort fostered by the action of the government of Kazakhstan could result in an Internet which is not a truly global network, but is instead a loose collection of many different national Internets. Such a result would notably reduce the value and effectiveness of the Internet.