As relations between the US and Europe become increasingly strained because, uh, the NSA spied on 35 world leaders, the state-backed Deutsche Telekom has declared that it wants to create a national internet to protect Germany from future privacy infringements.
Deutsche Telekom is rallying other German communications companies to join forces and shield local internet traffic from external intelligence services, reports Reuters. Obviously, that’s a rather bold aim, and would be incredibly tricky to pull off — not least because, without banning the likes of Facebook and Google, it can’t be a blanket protection scheme.
There’s a bigger concern, too, if that was the plan: creating a separate country-specific internet goes completely against the grain of what the internet stands for. It would be deeply concerning if a country like Germany really wanted to lock down the internet access of its population in such a way, not least because it would set a worrying precedent and could usher in a Balkanisation of the Internet.
All in, it remains to be seen how serious the suggestions are. But for the sake of the internet, let’s hope that it doesn’t come to much. [Reuters]
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