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Trump's antics aside, I wonder how much more turmoil will it take for cutting off the Internet to become an acceptable solution for a significant minority of pe

Trump's antics aside, I wonder how much more turmoil will it take for cutting off the Internet to become an acceptable solution for a significant minority of people in the West. Both sides of the political divide are becoming increasingly frustrated with it: the Right see it as a terrorist recruiting tool, the Left fear the Russian influence/trolls/hackers, and everyone seems to despise fake news and echo chambers. Some sort of a semi-popular anti-Internet/Internet Reform movement is bound to spring up sooner or later.

quuquuquu 9y ago
This is an interesting and troubling thought. It is much like the "Washington Consensus" that keeps the NSA alive and thoroughly funded. The NSA is probably the best example of bipartisan collaboration in the world- which hurts all of us around the world. I think Internet censorship and restriction continues to slowly creep along in fits and spurts. We see article after article of people being thrown in jail or targeted (Lauri Love, Kim Dotcom, Aaron Schwarz, TPB and Peter Sunde specifically, Julian Assange, etc)... and though we express outrage and we organize... We really are powerless to corporate and governmental control. So I guess some day the probably will shut off the internet just for fun. They've already been droning people and SWATting people for fun, why not shut off the internet too? Just make sure you say it's for vital US national security interests.
- wrinkl3 9y ago
  I feel that the governmental/corporate attempts at killing free Internet are mostly ineffective as long the public unanimously wants to preserve it. But as soon as enough people begin to question it themselves, thinking that maybe they would be better off with a walled garden, that their lives would be some much less stressful and chaotic if they just let it be properly regulated, then it becomes a different struggle altogether. If you ever see outlets publishing articles about how less stressful people's online lives are in China/Iran/Russia, know that that's the angle that's being pushed.
CM30 9y ago
Have to admit, this definitely worries me. As does the bipartisan disdain for things like freedom of speech, privacy, etc. The fact the media don't seem to defend these things any more (nor the internet in general) makes it even worse.

quuquuquu 9y ago

This is an interesting and troubling thought. It is much like the "Washington Consensus" that keeps the NSA alive and thoroughly funded. The NSA is probably the best example of bipartisan collaboration in the world- which hurts all of us around the world. I think Internet censorship and restriction continues to slowly creep along in fits and spurts. We see article after article of people being thrown in jail or targeted (Lauri Love, Kim Dotcom, Aaron Schwarz, TPB and Peter Sunde specifically, Julian Assange, etc)... and though we express outrage and we organize... We really are powerless to corporate and governmental control. So I guess some day the probably will shut off the internet just for fun. They've already been droning people and SWATting people for fun, why not shut off the internet too? Just make sure you say it's for vital US national security interests.

wrinkl3 9y ago
I feel that the governmental/corporate attempts at killing free Internet are mostly ineffective as long the public unanimously wants to preserve it. But as soon as enough people begin to question it themselves, thinking that maybe they would be better off with a walled garden, that their lives would be some much less stressful and chaotic if they just let it be properly regulated, then it becomes a different struggle altogether. If you ever see outlets publishing articles about how less stressful people's online lives are in China/Iran/Russia, know that that's the angle that's being pushed.

CM30 9y ago

Have to admit, this definitely worries me. As does the bipartisan disdain for things like freedom of speech, privacy, etc. The fact the media don't seem to defend these things any more (nor the internet in general) makes it even worse.