The not-so-World Wide Web

Governments around the world, prompted by nationalism, authoritarianism and other forces, are threatening the notion of a single, universal computer network — long the defining characteristic of the internet. Most countries want the internet and the economic and cultural benefits that come with it. Increasingly, though, they want to add their own rules — the internet with an asterisk, if you will. The question is just how many local rules you can make before the network's universality disappears. It's not just efforts to control what's shown on the web, but also the infrastructure and networks that power the internet, as well as where data is stored. We still don't know exactly how much local control the internet can handle without splitting into a variety of smaller, regional networks. By the time we learn the answer that question, it will probably be too late to put the network back together.