The Need for a True Foreign Policy of the Internet

Below is a guest post by Karen Kornbluh, Senior Fellow for Digital Policy.

Debate in the United States regarding the Snowden revelations of National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance has focused on the privacy implications for U.S. citizens. However, the fallout is much greater: NSA revelations threw a lit match onto a number of combustible global disputes that threaten the openness of the Internet itself.

In recent years foreign governments have been threatening to Balkanize the Internet and create what would be, in effect, national mini-Internets (or as Richard Salgado, Google’s law enforcement and information security director termed it, a “splinter net”). If this comes to pass, the United States has a lot to lose. President Obama delivers a speech today about reforms to the NSA’s surveillance, but the administration should also move to contain the international fallout of the NSA’s activities, by designing a coherent Foreign Policy of the Internet.

The Internet is the most powerful driver of commerce and innovation since the invention of the steam engine. According to the National Foreign Trade Council, goods, services, and content flowing through the Internet were responsible for 15 percent of U.S. GDP growth from 2007 to 2012.

Already, in response to the exposure of the NSA’s surveillance, many foreign governments are making it more difficult for U.S. communications and tech companies to conduct business abroad. Just a few examples:

For those wondering if this sturm und drang really amounts to much, there is already evidence of lost U.S. business: Cisco’s orders in China fell 18 percent in the three months ending in October; Brazil awarded a $4.5 billion contract to Saab AB rather than Boeing (until recently the favorite), and U.S. firms that collect personal data—from credit card companies to cloud-computing providers—have been exploring building or expanding data centers in Europe in case their ability to send data home is restricted. Such restrictions would drive up the cost of doing business to rates that would be prohibitive for young start-ups to reach international markets. Estimates of potential revenue losses range from $35-$180 billion through 2016.

Today, President Obama’s speech will outline his reforms to the NSA following the release of a report by the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies that he appointed in August.

President Obama’s reforms must be part of a broader Foreign Policy of the Internet, in which the United States builds support for norms that allow countries to protect domestic policy and security priorities without impinging on the openness of the Internet. If we are going to protect this precious platform, the Internet, the United States must: