Internet freedom: Should government have the ability to shut down the internet?
CBC
The Egyptian government shut down access to the internet and the country's cellphone data network early Friday, according to media reports.
Internet and cellphone data service was unavailable throughout the country, making it impossible for news of the protests to be broadcast via social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Cellphone voice service was also reported to be disrupted in certain parts of the country.
Protest organizers had also been using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to spread information about the protests.
Jim Cowie, the chief technology officer and a co-founder of Renesys, a network security firm in Manchester, N.H., called the action "almost entirely unprecedented in internet history," according to AP.
In the U.S., a controversial bill resurfaced in the Senate this week that would give the president power to shut down privately owned computer systems. The bill, co-sponsored by senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins, would essentially give the U.S. government a "kill switch" to shut down parts of the internet during a "national cyberemergency."
In 2009, both Spain and Finland declared that broadband internet access is a legal right of citizens.
Do you think government should have the power to shut down the internet? Should access to the internet be protected under the law?
