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1) The Feds would require Telecoms to implement systems to shutdown portions of "Teh Nets". You don't need to shut down web/email/etc servers you just need to
by pragmatic 18y ago
1) The Feds would require Telecoms to implement systems to shutdown portions of "Teh Nets". You don't need to shut down web/email/etc servers you just need to update the config files in a few backbone devices (routers/etc).
You could shut the internet traffic down in my state fairly easily. Most cities are served by a very few providers and all those providers rely on the underlying carries (ATT/Qwest/etc) to get data moved interstate.
- jrockway 18y agoThe first time the Internet is shut down, you can bet that two things will happen: 1) Big companies will complain very loudly, and probably cost the government and ISPs a lot of money defending lawsuits. (Can you imagine what would happen to Amazon if it were shut down for a day? Not something that's good for their bottom line...) 2) The damage will be routed around. Right now, we trust ISPs because they are convenient. But IP over amateur radio is certainly possible, as are mesh networks and other things like that. Remember, the entire point of the Internet is to route around damage.
- asciilifeform 18y agoI think the kill switch is intended for a martial law scenario, where lawsuits and the like will be irrelevant.
- jrockway 18y agoI assume people will still know how to build their own radios, however.
- ryanwaggoner 18y agoHaha...this really made me laugh. Honestly, if there were no web access, how many people in the US could build their own radio?
- asciilifeform 18y agoThe time to build (a wireless-mesh replacement for the Internet, sets of encrypted radios, or for that matter, any subversive technology) is now, rather than when martial law is declared - and we are shipped off to the camps before our soldering irons can warm up. How many people even own dead-tree versions of essential engineering references? Most people have abandoned even dictionaries in favor of the web. We have grown utterly dependent on a rather surprisingly fragile medium with plenty of government tentacles wriggling in assorted orifices.