Senate proposes Internet "kill switch"

The hell of it is, it's not a great leap from shutting down the Internet to taking over the papers, radio and TV. Thy are the great and powerful Oz ... and who needs that pesky First Amendment anyway?

 

Just put 21 in charge of the Internet for a day. It will be gone before you can blink your eyes.

 

If there was ever a real need to do this, they'd just do it.

 

From the story, it sounds like the law would allow them to shut down most of the major ISPs and portals. So companies like Comcast, AT&T, AOL, Google, Yahoo, etc. would be shut down in a "time of emergency." Whatever other major regional companies provide Internet service or hosting would also be included.

Azrael, this differs from the Emergency Broadcasting System in one major way. The EBS interrupts television and radio but also provides some information. You hear the EBS tone during bad weather, for instance, you know you'll hear where the tornado is headed.
This legislation would interrupt communications and deny information. That it could, in a hopefully far-fetched and worst-case scenario, be used arbitrarily by the government to crush dissent or spread disinformation is just more reason to squash it now.

 

I hope the Internet kill switch and the nuclear launch button don't look alike.

 

Holy Joe gave this comforting reassurance on CNN this morning:

"I say to my friends on the Internet 'relax', take a look at the bill... Right now China, the government, can disconnect parts of its Internet in a case of war; we need to have that here, too."

 

Well China can round up thousands of people in Tienanmen Square and shoot 'em any time they feel like it, too. You think we ought to be able to do that too, Joe?

 

Let's go over why China has blocked some sites. China blocked iTunes during the Olympics when athletes downloaded a pro-Tibetan album. Access to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were dropped during incidents in a northern Chinese province. Do any of these sites have a single thing to do with war?

Besides, this law would directly conflict with the First Amendement and freedom of speech. This law has the ability to allow for abusive censoring, ideas that go directly against the beliefs of this country.

 

Joe just wants to be able to shut down the internets if anybody says anything nasty about Israel ....


Kamakawiwo'ole, of whom he was a tremendous fan.

 

The last board was shut down by Joe Lieberman for less than this.

 

Someone pointed out in our newsroom not too long ago we now refer to him as "Was."

 

Yeah, let's take another step towards emulating China's stellar
human-rights postures.

Just what we want.

Dead solid perfect.

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