[LINK] How Egypt Shut down the net

[Rick Welykochy]

Richard Chirgwin wrote:

> What gets under my skin is that there are fear-mongers out there
> pitching the line that the Australian government already has the power
> to order a shut-down; and moreover, that it's building the NBN so it can
> get a single kill switch. As Mark Newton remarked on Twitter during a
> similar discussion: most of the time, his discussions with "national
> security" types are on the topic of how to keep the Internet *up* rather
> than how to shut it down.

A related concern is the rise of commercial and government interests
calling for a differentiated Internet, i.e. non net neutrality. With such
controls in place, once can posit that shutting the thing down would be
much easier than it is now, all done without legislation.

I am of course presuming that the principle of net neutrality is NOT enshrined
in any legislation (in any jurisdiction for that matter) and that these
are early days in future control of who gets what kind of feed on the net.
It is a small step from a differentiated network to one where, by design
and edict, central control dictates who gets fed what. Such moves should
be seen for what they are: a totalitarian takeover of communications
infrastructure.

Similar control has already been observed in totalitarian regimes around the
world w.r.t. the post and telephone/telegraph telecommunications.

Having some right wing loonies falsely claiming that plans are underway
with the design of the NBN to take us into a new totalitarian regime
of network control clouds clear thinking on the matter. Perhaps this
is an sector where activism is required, something to be approached
at the level of a basic human right and a related Bill of Rights for this
country.

cheers
rickw


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Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services

The intermediate stage between socialism and capitalism is alcoholism.
      -- Uncle Sam Widget