Will governements shut down the internet?

[airdata]

"You can't stop the internet."
-Joe Rogan

[MoonShadow]

http://freedomboxfoundation.org/

[error]

The last government that threw their Internet kill switch fell pretty quickly afterward. In the US it would be political suicide.

[Horkabork]

The last government that threw their Internet kill switch fell pretty quickly afterward. In the US it would be political suicide.

Not if it was framed as "protection from terrorists."

The politician who figures out how to shut down the internet, albeit temporarily, and claims somehow that it was to "protect against a terrorist cyber threat" would win any election by a landslide.

Even if he was a cyborg.

Especially if he was a cyborg.

In fact, forget the whole internet terrorism thing. I'd vote for a cyborg on his cyborgian characteristics alone.

[jib]

Governments (aside from the insane despotic ones, perhaps) won't literally "shut down" the internet, because communications infrastructure is a necessary part of a modern society. Our economy wouldn't function without it.

Regulating the internet more heavily is certainly a possibility, though. e.g setting up a Great Firewall and banning anyone from running a public web or email server without a license. (Justified by preventing phishing, preventing spam, protecting the children, monitoring terrorist communication, etc.)

In Australia the government has already shown their willingness to set up a blacklist of blocked sites (although that proposal doesn't look like being implemented any time soon).

[Indemnified]

http://freedomboxfoundation.org/

I sent them a donation, but I had to use PayPal. They had no option to donate with btc! Here`s hoping they get with the program!