(EDIT: HN link)

“Yes, but…” I think he is focusing on the wrong threat here. The real threat of (metaphorical) balkanization to the web has already touched down, and exists in the form of Facebook, Twitter, et al., even on down to all of those terrible phpBB sites. He touches on this when he mentions that even he is concerned about being “reliant on big companies, and one big server”, but then he goes on to sweep that concern under the rug.

Don’t get me wrong: I, too, am no fan of seeing the internet (not “the web”, but the internet…let’s keep our terms straight here) split up along literal geopolitical lines. (And, quite frankly, I think it’s a miracle that the internet has remained as open as it still is to this day world-wide. It’s open to varying degress, to be sure, but it’s still remarkable.) But I’m also not sure that there is much that can be done to prevent that, aside from vocally condemning the governments of such countries and trying to influence things by setting a better example. They are sovereign entities, after all.

Newsflash: if you don’t have a free society, you won’t have an open internet.