Many of the rules of global trade were shaken after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.Will the internet be next?The present times are unprecedented for the physical and digital world as the conflict in Ukraine intensifies.Corporate giants like Meta, Google and Apple, which have always characterized themselves as tech-neutral companies, are now flaunting their political colors, pulling their products out of Russia in response to the Ukraine invasion.Meanwhile, the internet itself is changing for Russian users.Twitter and Facebook are blocked, TikTok does not allow posts from users from Russia and there are reports that the police are questioning people on the streets to find out what they are seeing on their cell phones.The question now is whether conflict can alter not just the geography of the world, but fundamentally change the nature of the global internet.Russian internet providers recently needed to test a Russian version of the networkThe Ukrainian government has selected specific tech firms to ask them to ban their services in Russia, and the list of tech firms that refuse to do business or sell products in the country is growing by the day.End of Recommended MaterialsNow, the leaders of the high-tech sector are asking for something more: completely disconnecting Russia from the global internet.These requests were answered with a resounding "no" from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is the body in charge of controlling the Internet.It received a request to cancel Russian top-level domains such as .ru, in addition to the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates associated with the country.But ICANN's motto is "One World, One Internet", and in response to Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, ICANN's Chief Executive, Göran Marby, stated that "as part of our mission, we maintain neutrality and We act in support of the global internet. Our mission does not include taking punitive action, including sanctions, or restricting access against segments of the internet - regardless of provocation."Several organizations supported this decision, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) digital privacy group.Corynne McSherry and Konstantinos Komaitis of the EFF declared that war is not a time to "cause internet mayhem."According to the EFF, interfering with fundamental internet infrastructure protocols would have "dangerous and lasting consequences".Among these consequences are:Web infrastructure company Cloudflare, which provides protection against cyber attacks, was also called upon by Ukraine to terminate its services in Russia.On its blog, the company said it had reviewed the request, but concluded that "Russia needs more internet access, not less".The Chinese version of the internet is very different from what we see in the WestAdaptation of the award-winning BBC podcast 'Things Fell Apart' by Jon Ronson.For many people, the hack requests formed a dangerous path towards what is known as the Splinternet - different countries having different versions of the internet.The Great Digital Wall of China, as it is called, is perhaps the most obvious example of how a country can create its own Web.But in Iran, the content of the network is also policed ​​and external information is limited by the Iranian state telecommunications company.Russia itself has been experimenting with a standalone internet - dubbed Runet - for several years, but one that fits the existing internet, unlike the Chinese version, which was built from scratch.In 2019, the Russian government claimed to have successfully tested the system.Few understood its need at the time, but in the current context of the invasion of Ukraine, "it makes a lot more sense," according to Alan Woodward, a computer scientist at the University of Surrey in the UK.In that test, Russian internet providers were asked to configure the internet within their borders as if it were a giant intranet - a private network of websites with no communication with the outside world.The initiative involved restricting the points at which the Russian version of the internet connected with its global counterpart.Now, apparently Russia is testing these systems again.A Russian government memo asked internet providers to beef up their security and connect to DNS (Domain Name System) servers in Russia.Some believed the memo and the test date (March 11) meant that Russia's separation from the internet was imminent.But Woodward considers this to be more of a readiness test."It was more like Russia calling on ISPs to get ready, making local copies of DNS (the internet phone book) and having them have local versions of third-party software coming from servers outside of Russia, like Javascript," he says.Since then, Russia has denied that it will cut itself off from the internet, saying the test was intended to protect Russian websites from cyberattacks from abroad.But James Griffiths, author of The Great Firewall of China, believes the plug could be unplugged at any time."Cutting down the internet, ensuring that Russians only consume Kremlin-approved content, that sort of thing, strategically makes sense, so you can see where we're going," he told the BBC."I wouldn't be surprised if [this cut] goes into effect in the next few weeks or months."Is Fragmenting the Internet Inevitable?Abishur Prakash, author of The World is Vertical: How Technology is Remaking Globalisation, thinks conflict is reshaping the internet from "a system global network to which the whole world is connected" to something more fragmented."Due to geopolitics, a different project for the internet is emerging, in which countries are cut off or develop their own alternatives. Global bridges, such as social media platforms, which have connected populations for decades, are being destroyed", he says. he.And, according to James Griffiths, the internet's new axis of power will be divided between the West and China/Russia.“Fang Binxing, known as the founding father of the Digital Great Wall of China, visited Russia in 2016 to help them with what they are doing and make the Russian firewall much more similar to the Chinese one,” he says.And he believes Russia will once again turn to Beijing as internet companies withdraw their products and services."As the Russian economy is excluded from much of the global economy, they are turning to China. They will need to trust China even more than in the past."So far, Chinese technology companies such as Huawei have not declared anything official about the conflict.Did you know that the BBC is also on Telegram?Subscribe to the channel.Have you watched our new videos on YouTube?Subscribe to our channel!© 2022 BBC.The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites.Read about our policy regarding external links.