Even as fighting rages on the ground in Ukraine, Russia continues to wage a long-term battle for control of what Kremlin officials call the “information space” of internet communications.
Russia knows that information is power. In addition to muzzling debate at home, it has attempted to seize the digital high ground internationally through the United Nations and its agencies. Last year, it campaigned for leadership of the U.N.’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Moscow’s candidate was rejected in favor of an American, Doreen Bogdan-Martin.
Moscow’s latest attempt to rewrite internet governance came at a meeting this month of a U.N. working group known as the Global Digital Compact. Moscow argued for international regulation of cyberspace in place of the current loose but effective public-private system known as the “multistakeholder model,” which the Russians claim is dominated by “large technological conglomerates” in the West.
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Boris Meshchanov, Russia’s representative at the U.N. meeting, turned normal logic upside down by claiming that only state control of the internet could protect liberty. “The regulation of the internet exclusively by the private sector has long been shown to be ineffective. Only States can guarantee the rights and freedoms of citizens,” Meshchanov argued during an April 13 speech to the working group.
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Russia’s position in these international gatherings has been severely weakened by its invasion of Ukraine. Meshchanov complained about Western “dividing lines” between “democratic” states and “authoritarian” ones that are “allegedly opposed to a free and safe internet.” He said Russia wants the Global Digital Compact to create “a balanced international system for managing the internet infrastructure.”
The Biden administration scoffs at Moscow’s internet arguments. “Russia is trotting out tired, unrealistic proposals that most countries have considered and rejected,” a State Department spokesperson wrote me on Thursday. “This language is nothing new, and we don’t see appetite globally for a Russia or China-led internet.”
The Russians (backed by China) have had little success in rewriting the rules for cyberspace, but they keep on coming. After Russian President Vladimir Putin’s meeting last month with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the two pledged to “support the creation of a multilateral, equal and transparent global internet governance system” — meaning one that they could control.
A new battle over communications rules will open in November when the World Radiocommunication Conference convenes in Dubai. This meeting, organized by the ITU, will include debate on rules and standards for satellite-broadband systems such as Elon Musk’s Starlink array.
The World Radiocommunication Conference is the sort of obscure technical discussion that the United States sometimes ignored in the past. But the Biden administration has smartly made such international trench warfare a priority. To prepare for the conference, the State Department is gathering a team led by Anna Gomez, an expert on spectrum issues who was drafted from the Federal Communications Commission. State has also created the Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, headed by Nathaniel C. Fick.
The satellite networks that will be discussed at the WRC meeting in Dubai are potential game-changers in global communications: They could provide internet access for otherwise closed or tightly regulated countries, such as Russia, China and Iran. Starlink has also provided broadband connectivity for the Ukrainian military, allowing its forces to download intelligence and targeting information.
Russia has tried unsuccessfully to block these satellite internet systems. As its forces were invading Ukraine, Russia hacked a system called Viasat in an effort to deny signals to Ukraine. The system was eventually restored, but the attack affected users across Europe.
Musk, the chief executive of Starlink’s parent, SpaceX, tweeted last May: “Starlink has resisted Russian cyberwar jamming & hacking attempts so far, but they’re ramping up their efforts.” Evidently worried about the risks, Starlink announced in February that it would no longer allow Ukraine to use its service for drones and other offensive military operations.
Space might become a battlefield in the information war. Russian diplomat Konstantin Vorontsov warned at the United Nations in October that private satellite networks were “an extremely dangerous trend” and that “quasi-civilian infrastructure may become a legitimate target for retaliation.”
To sum up: Russia and China are deadly serious about controlling information — on the ground in their suppression of journalists and in global forums that are shaping the rules for cyberspace. The United States might have invented the modern digital world, but Russia and China want to put their hands on the kill switch.