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Comment by Etheryte

2 days ago

Whenever this concept comes up, I can't help but ask, how would you actually implement cutting them off? They're chums with China, so is the plan to cut them off as well? And then all the countries that border China? What about other countries they share a border with? Etc. The only realistically feasible option is if they choose to do it themselves.

5 comments

Etheryte

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tgsovlerkhgsel  2 days ago

Prohibit US ISPs from maintaining routes with anyone who maintains routes with Russia.

  • Etheryte  2 days ago

    The result of that would be cutting the US off from the internet, not Russia.

    • tgsovlerkhgsel  2 days ago

      The result would be that there would be two Internets, one with the US, and one with Russia. Each country could then choose which one to join (either-or).

      So countries would have to choose between keeping access to Microsoft (Azure, Office 365, Windows updates), Amazon (AWS, Amazon itself, Prime Video), Google (Google Cloud, all Google services), Meta (WhatsApp/Facebook/Instagram), Github, Cloudflare, Slack, Steam, Netflix, Mastercard, Visa, ... - or to the services in countries that chose differently.

      I don't think that is a choice that any even remotely Western-aligned country could even consider a choice. It's likely that there would be some form of backlash (countries disliking this loss of sovereignty and measures to discourage reliance on US-based cloud providers in the long term), but in the short term, this would not be cutting the US off from parts of the Internet that it cares about.

      And with most countries having chosen (well, "chosen") the US-aligned Internet, India and China would have to choose between begrudgingly playing along, or seriously hurting their economies due to the additional friction of communicating with their export markets.

      I have no doubt that the US could pull this off. Not necessarily repeatedly and without consequences, of course, but right now, if they wanted to, I don't think the rest of the world would have a choice to not go along with it.

    • watwut  2 days ago

      US is cooperating with Russia and supporting it. Why would it cut itself from its newest ally?