Breaking the Internet

[Commentary] Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff’s recent indictment of the United States’ cyber-spying practices has profound global repercussions for the US vision of a borderless, open Internet.

What makes this backlash especially potent and lamentable is that it is being fueled, not by democracies that oppose American ideals, but rather, by allies that resent Washington’s betrayal of its own over-archingly positive vision. Rouseff’s offensive to change Internet governance follows reports that the National Security Agency’s watchful eye could see as far as her Palácio do Planalto in Brasília. According to leaked documents, the United States has been surveilling Rousseff’s email, intercepting internal government communications, and spying on the country’s national oil company. After canceling an official visit to meet with President Obama in Washington, Rousseff took to the podium at the UN’s General Assembly to call on other countries to disconnect from U.S. Internet hegemony and develop their own sovereign Internet and governance structures. Rousseff’s move could lead to a powerful chorus – one that would transform the Internet of the future from a global commons to a fractured patchwork severely limited by the political boundaries on a map.

Is the benefit of spying on Brazil’s oil company worth the cost of antagonizing the people of our hemisphere’s second-largest democracy and giving China and Russia the moral high ground in debates over how people around the world should access information? Do we really want a world where this behavior is normalized and where its acceptable for every country to surveille and hack indiscriminately?

The answer to that question seems pretty clear. Today we need bold reforms from Washington — we need to curtail our unhealthy addiction to surveillance and covert hacking. Only by being radically transparent about the scope of current activities and ceasing activities that transgress national norms will we regain global trust and shift the rather bleak trajectory we are currently on.