The internet would be split if the simplest requests -- TCP, HTTP, and email -- cannot cross borders without inspection/censorship. If people everywhere cannot

The internet would be split if the simplest requests -- TCP, HTTP, and email -- cannot cross borders without inspection/censorship. If people everywhere cannot communicate, we would move toward the stark borders of the Cold War, where simple acts of cross-border communication were notable. One can readily argue that China has already split the internet, to an extent. In the best case, one can imagine that the US is stumbling-toward/leading-the-way into a world where free expression and freedom from monitoring is requisite for unfettered access to the predominant global communications network. I hope that is the ultimate destination. The Trump administration is unlikely to be able to finish that work, but a line in the sand to state that outright monitoring of global citizens is unacceptable seems like a good place to start. To make this work, the United States must also refrain from deeply monitoring the speech and actions of citizens of other countries. It is reasonable to expect the EU to require local hosting of a lot more US cloud services in the coming year. If the world is to balkanize, it may also mean that cross-border interactions are dominated by open-source software and open protocols. A silver lining in a dark cloud.