It would be useful to clarify what "follow the rules" here means, in the USA (for us non-USA audiences). It probably varies in different countries, but in most

It would be useful to clarify what "follow the rules" here means, in the USA (for us non-USA audiences). It probably varies in different countries, but in most cases doesn't it simply refer to fair usage? Make your payments in time and don't put excessive strain on the grid by powering your inter-dimensional portal. Does ideology or clandestine activity matter in how you use electricity? Of course, a court order could force the utility company to cut you off, but can the utility company simply cut you off based on their or society's _opinion_ of your activities? If you consider an internet connection a public utility, which we should, then that would be ostracism. In terms of companies being able to successfully run their businesses, are we at the point where a "cloud provider" should be considered part of a country's infrastructure? I can agree with the point being made about an internet connection, but Parler was still able to buy some servers and self-host. Unless there's an argument here to consider cloud providers a de-facto component of a nation's tech infrastructure. Seeing as we have no proper public regulation of the sector and no public player providing the service, I'm not sure how far that argument would go. It's still an interesting question to ponder on, I guess.