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I like this point. The first question we should ask when someone develops a single switch to shut off an entire, critical piece of infrastructure is why? Who wo

I like this point. The first question we should ask when someone develops a single switch to shut off an entire, critical piece of infrastructure is why? Who would need to do that? Whose interest is it for? Surely not the company, why would they stop serving their customers and go through the expense of making it easy to do that. There is no other reason to have and use that capability than to stop an entire population from communicating. No one has a good justified reason for wanting to do that. Corrupt reasons? Yes. But not any that are in the interest of a truly open, democratic society.

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karatinversion 6y ago
Well in this case, the order is from a military government, which locked up the elected politicians earlier this year and is shooting its people in the streets, so the boat on “a truly open, democratic society” has kind of sailed. It also suggests, to the people running the networks on the ground, that the military is very open to coming round and shooting you if you don’t shut it down.
sedatk 6y ago
> why? Who would need to do that? Whose interest is it for? "National security" is the blanket answer to all those questions.
luckylion 6y ago
> The first question we should ask when someone develops a single switch to shut off an entire, critical piece of infrastructure is why? They don't though. From a technical view point, they have the same "off switch" that every country has: boots on the ground, guns and trust that they'll use them. They didn't switch the internet off, they ordered the service providers to switch it off. Every country on earth can do that with the service providers that are running physical infrastructure in the country, it's harder for satellite internet. There's absolutely no reason why the US, Germany or Switzerland couldn't do the same. They probably won't any time soon, but they can: all it takes is a few phone calls and the service providers' belief that they mean it.

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karatinversion 6y ago

Well in this case, the order is from a military government, which locked up the elected politicians earlier this year and is shooting its people in the streets, so the boat on “a truly open, democratic society” has kind of sailed. It also suggests, to the people running the networks on the ground, that the military is very open to coming round and shooting you if you don’t shut it down.

sedatk 6y ago

> why? Who would need to do that? Whose interest is it for? "National security" is the blanket answer to all those questions.

luckylion 6y ago

> The first question we should ask when someone develops a single switch to shut off an entire, critical piece of infrastructure is why? They don't though. From a technical view point, they have the same "off switch" that every country has: boots on the ground, guns and trust that they'll use them. They didn't switch the internet off, they ordered the service providers to switch it off. Every country on earth can do that with the service providers that are running physical infrastructure in the country, it's harder for satellite internet. There's absolutely no reason why the US, Germany or Switzerland couldn't do the same. They probably won't any time soon, but they can: all it takes is a few phone calls and the service providers' belief that they mean it.