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Poorly defined question. What's an "Internet kill switch?" An executive order to shut down all routable ASes in the US? Legislative? I think this question does

Poorly defined question. What's an "Internet kill switch?" An executive order to shut down all routable ASes in the US? Legislative? I think this question doesn't really have an answer because it's too poorly defined.

solipsist 16y ago
> Stupid question. Don't you think that's a little harsh to say, if not even disrespectful. As quoted from the Hacker News Guidelines (that I'm sure you must have read before): When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g. "That is an idiotic thing to say; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." This remarks adds nothing to your point and rather discredits your opinion for many of us. > I think this question doesn't really have an answer because it's too poorly defined. This is fair to say, but I left it broad for a reason - hoping people would debate the general principle rather than specific details. If the broadness of the poll is too much for you, then ignore it.
- Locke1689 16y ago
  Perhaps that was too harsh. I changed it to "poorly defined question," which is critical but helpful.
Cushman 16y ago
It's an open question, certainly, but the broad meaning isn't vague. It's anything that would legally or technologically enable the Executive branch to disable public internet access in all or part of the United States at will. I can't think up a way to make that a plausibly good thing to exist in any form.
- Locke1689 16y ago
  Then explain to me how this could not exist. As long as there are routable ASes they can be shut down.
abhimishra 16y ago
I don't even think it needs to be a switch. The actual bill that was brought up in the Senate doesn't explicitly say 'kill switch' anywhere. In reality a call from someone in the government to a few people who work at large ISPs/backbones would be enough, since they would just comply. We saw this happen recently with Wikileaks, after all....
- kbyers 16y ago
  It is not so easy--large networks will have a lot of redundancy built-in. Consequently, even shutting down a single large BGP autonomous system is not a simple problem and would have a lot of unintended consequences. Wikileaks is not a good analogy. Wikileaks is more analogous to black-holing one small AS.

solipsist 16y ago

> Stupid question. Don't you think that's a little harsh to say, if not even disrespectful. As quoted from the Hacker News Guidelines (that I'm sure you must have read before): When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g. "That is an idiotic thing to say; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." This remarks adds nothing to your point and rather discredits your opinion for many of us. > I think this question doesn't really have an answer because it's too poorly defined. This is fair to say, but I left it broad for a reason - hoping people would debate the general principle rather than specific details. If the broadness of the poll is too much for you, then ignore it.

Locke1689 16y ago
Perhaps that was too harsh. I changed it to "poorly defined question," which is critical but helpful.

Cushman 16y ago

It's an open question, certainly, but the broad meaning isn't vague. It's anything that would legally or technologically enable the Executive branch to disable public internet access in all or part of the United States at will. I can't think up a way to make that a plausibly good thing to exist in any form.

Locke1689 16y ago
Then explain to me how this could not exist. As long as there are routable ASes they can be shut down.

abhimishra 16y ago

I don't even think it needs to be a switch. The actual bill that was brought up in the Senate doesn't explicitly say 'kill switch' anywhere. In reality a call from someone in the government to a few people who work at large ISPs/backbones would be enough, since they would just comply. We saw this happen recently with Wikileaks, after all....

kbyers 16y ago
It is not so easy--large networks will have a lot of redundancy built-in. Consequently, even shutting down a single large BGP autonomous system is not a simple problem and would have a lot of unintended consequences. Wikileaks is not a good analogy. Wikileaks is more analogous to black-holing one small AS.