EAGER: Collaborative Research: Exploring Internet Balkanization through the Lens of Regional Discrimination

International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

One of the Internet's greatest strengths is the degree to which it facilitates access to any of its resources from users anywhere in the world. Various forces, however, have arisen that restrict particular users from accessing particular destinations, resulting in a "balkanization" of the network. The principal investigators (PIs) explore methodologies for understanding such balkanization, an effort they will undertake in the context of examining "regional discrimination," i.e., the degree to which certain web services deny or degrade access to users from particular geographic regions. The project seeks to develop techniques that can (1) illuminate the blocking practices of websites at scale, (2) characterize the implications of such balkanization for both users and websites, and (3) identify alternative approaches that can reduce the adverse effects of blocking. Accurately distinguishing between the presence of network discrimination/control versus benign reasons for observing differences in website responses poses a challenging technical problem. First, measurement results can differ based on the properties of the vantage points used. Second, websites may block automated measurement even though regular users can access the websites. These errors include blocking due to unusual web access behavior, e.g., uncommon user agents or excessive web requests per minute. Third, repeated automated measurement from an affected region can potentially induce new blocking. Finally, discrimination may manifest at high semantic levels (e.g., the inability to finalize a purchase) not readily discernible from network-level analysis. In addition, accurate measurement alone does not suffice for understanding the significance of differences in website responses. Websites can differ in regions based on language and copyright regulations, for example. Discriminatory blocking can also occur because websites lack sufficiently fine-grained controls to govern blocking. For example, using the security protection provided by content delivery networks (CDNs) and hosting services can result in inadvertent discrimination. The PIs will undertake the development of scientifically rigorous measurement and analysis methodologies for detecting and understanding differential treatment of Internet users, using the domain of regional discrimination to focus the work. Combining measurements across network layers they will characterize the methods used for such blocking and investigate potential reasons and implications for both users and websites. The PIs will also explore alternative solutions to reduce the damaging effects of regional blocking while still protecting the services from abuse. The Internet has a huge and pervasive impact on the lives of people all over the world. The prevalence of moving away from a global and singular Internet to a multiplicity of regional or national internets, shaped by commerce, the state, and region-specific network security concerns, has seen little methodical exploration. With this work the PIs aim to develop approaches for systematically illuminating the presence of network differences and blocking arising from such balkanization, allowing characterization of its prevalence, and by providing transparency strengthen the overall understanding of how the Internet works in practice.