U.S. Government Proposes "Internet Kill Switch"

[PoliceBox63]

Maybe it's what we really need jk

 

[molesgallus]

I could have sworn Lieberman was an Independent Democrat. So wouldn't he be left wing? Or is that the problem? I haven't paid much attention with politics, they've increasingly made me jaded and depressed.

He lost the Democratic primary here in Connecticut and started his own party (it has since repudiated him - which has got to hurt since it had his name in its title). He supposedly caucuses with Democrats but campaigned for McCain and can always be relied upon to support knee-jerk conservative responses (both regarding national security and "morals").

Fortunately, his chances of being reelected at this point are about the same as BP being named the this year's most environmentally friendly corporation.

Oh, Lieberman! What zany right-wing paranoid fear-mongering will you bring us next? And, more importantly, what civil liberties crushing solution will you propose?

Gut miranda rights? Check. Deny accused criminals other basic rights? Check. Pave the way for a government seizure of the internet? Check.

I could have sworn Lieberman was an Independent Democrat. So wouldn't he be left wing? Or is that the problem? I haven't paid much attention with politics, they've increasingly made me jaded and depressed.

He's whatever the lobbyists want him to be...

So he's basically That Guy. I don't even want to know how long he's been in office, it's bad enough Michele Bachmann is in there.

All politicians are That Guy. All successful politicians, that is.

 

[mew4ever23]

Mooom.. The US is trying to take over the world again... [/whiny voice]

Seriously though, I really don't like the idea of any one person having the power to shut down the entire Internet, much less the US government. Get on the phone to your member of congress, America, and get this bill shut down.

Even if it's just America's Internet, it's still a terrible idea.

 

[Flying-Emu]

"We cannot afford to wait for a cyber-9/11 before our government realizes the importance of protecting our cyber-resources," said bill co-sponsor Senator Susan Collins [http://collins.senate.gov/public/].

Neither can we stand idly by and allow this sort of insult to occur. Talk about cock-slapping the free economy. Requiring companies to partake in this? And I'm guessing they'll have to pay some sort of dividend FOR this "information sharing." Sounds like the govvies are trying to rake up some more cash to pour into their stupid fuckin' war.

I like how the fines are basically a way of keeping the angle that they still have the right to refuse it. Regardless, this is a joke, and I just can't imagine that they don't understand how many people this would affect!

I don't think they could "turn off" the internet in other countries though... I mean, that sounds like something worth going to war over. Figure every modern company uses the internet as a means of communication, and the internet is turned off for... oh, eight hours, a usual work shift.

The monetary loss would be measured in the billions.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Oh my good lord. I can see it now, so we'll lose words in our language and they'll be able to listen to us threw our TVs. If anyone gets what I'm referencing I will be surprised.

1984.

Although this sounds like another knee-jerk reactionary scare story to me.

Yay someone reads. Someone reads a good book too. Yea I hope this is just a farce so I don't have to start making sighs and find some way to DC and protest this. Cause I will.

Nah, it'd bring all international trade and the world's banks to their knees (in the case of the banks, again). I can't imagine any kind of threat that would warrant bringing the entire globe's commerce to a grinding, shuddering (and indefinite) halt.

 

[Jamash]

Does the word cyber-9/11 piss anyone else off?

Aye, if they're going to shut down the entire world's Internet, they can at least have the decency to call it "cyber-11/9".

 

[Kollega]

OT: Is this just for the US? Cus I'm questioning why they would have any right to turn off British internet, considering A) They HAVE no right and B) We technically invented it

Any proof of that? If you don't have any proof, then i claim that the Internet was "techincally invented" by Russians.

OT: the US government won't approve of that bill, for many many many reasons. They may be stupid, but they're not that stupid. It may sound odd, but even stupidity has it's limits.

 

[Misterian]

I don't think that proposal will come through.

If it does, I'll have to move to Canada or something and hope there's internet here I can use.

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

Whaaaaaaaaaat?

This is insane. I cannot think of any event that is even remotely feasible that would require the entire internet to be turned off.

If someone decided to hack into the Pentagon Network System (or whatever the hell it's called...) then I would find it a very effective way to stop it.

 

[BlackKraken]

I call to question they're actual ability to do this. Surely majority of the worlds servers wouldn't be affected, the internet isn't something you can just "switch off".

 

[Lizmichi]

Oh my good lord. I can see it now, so we'll lose words in our language and they'll be able to listen to us threw our TVs. If anyone gets what I'm referencing I will be surprised.

1984.

Although this sounds like another knee-jerk reactionary scare story to me.

Yay someone reads. Someone reads a good book too. Yea I hope this is just a farce so I don't have to start making sighs and find some way to DC and protest this. Cause I will.

Nah, it'd bring all international trade and the world's banks to their knees (in the case of the banks, again). I can't imagine any kind of threat that would warrant bringing the entire globe's commerce to a grinding, shuddering (and indefinite) halt.

Yea and that's the last thing anyone needs right now. I still don't get how we can have an "internet 9/11."

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Whaaaaaaaaaat?

This is insane. I cannot think of any event that is even remotely feasible that would require the entire internet to be turned off.

If someone decided to hack into the Pentagon Network System (or whatever the hell it's called...) then I would find it a very effective way to stop it.

Surely the snart move would be to not have the Pentagon system connected to the wider internet?

 

[Fat Hippo]

Oh yeah?

Well the US government can suck my cock.

The echo of a thousand cyber-cries uttered at the same time.

 

[chaos order]

Destroy our internet? We must respond with our most powerful weapon! CALL IN 4CHAN

 

[HT_Black]

Oh my good lord. I can see it now, so we'll lose words in our language and they'll be able to listen to us threw our TVs. If anyone gets what I'm referencing I will be surprised.

I think (read: it did) 1984 made reference to both of those things.

Firstly, does anybody remember that not too long ago Joe Lieberman could've been described as a slightly credible version of Jack Thompson? Secondly, why on Earth would any government--let alone America-- ever need to use something like this? I'm not immediately protesting it, but why oh why does an "internet killswitch" even need to exist? I might be stupid, but I just don't get it...

 

[Woodsey]

Oh yeah?

Well the US government can suck my cock.

That's not the US government.
That's Joe Lieberman.
I doubt anyone takes the guy seriously.

Not a clue who he is (I'm British), but if that's the case then I retract my cock-sucking statement and issue it directly to Joe Lieberman.

Since I'm Russian, the only way I know of him is this.
http://pc.ign.com/articles/475/475503p1.html
Yeah.

Oh, he's one of those...

*sigh*

 

[Mechsoap]

Oh yeah?

Well the US government can suck my cock.

Damn right!

How amazingly self-centred of them... That would disrupt internet commerce the world over!

I'm all for increased levels of security online... but that's just going way too far.

indeed...maybe include all the earths leader to also have one so when they all press it the internet shuts down

 

[Proteus214]

Beyond stupid. If such an event were to happen, killing the internet wouldn't exactly help in the ensuing investigation. Additionally, what's to stop it from happening again once everything is turned back on?

 

[Withall]

From what little I've written of the article... No. Just, no. I won't work, and represents a desperate measure from an ignorant politician.
While the concept is interesting... I think a hardware "killswitch" would be the real thing; not a "The Internet" folder that could be deleted by mistake (as some posters have pointed out). I declare this bullshit, but we shall see what happens as time passes.

 

[GrinningManiac]

OT: Is this just for the US? Cus I'm questioning why they would have any right to turn off British internet, considering A) They HAVE no right and B) We technically invented it

Any proof of that? If you don't have any proof, then i claim that the Internet was "techincally invented" by Russians.

OT: the US government won't approve of that bill, for many many many reasons. They may be stupid, but they're not that stupid. It may sound odd, but even stupidity has it's limits.

On 6 August 1991, CERN, a pan European organization for particle research, publicized the new World Wide Web project. The Web was invented by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. An early popular web browser was ViolaWWW, patterned after HyperCard and built using the X Window System. It was eventually replaced in popularity by the Mosaic web browser. In 1993, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois released version 1.0 of Mosaic, and by late 1994 there was growing public interest in the previously academic, technical Internet. By 1996 usage of the word Internet had become commonplace, and consequently, so had its use as a synecdoche in reference to the World Wide Web.