[governance] Egypt and Internet Governance

[Avri Doria]

On 1 Feb 2011, at 07:21, Norbert Bollow wrote:

> I would argue that while a curfew (in the sense of forbidding leaving
> one's place of residence at night-time) might be justifiable in some
> kinds of extreme circumstances, not even extreme circumstances can
> justify internet censorship or an internet shut-down.


In general I agree.  

What I have beens struggling with was whether there were ever any legitimate reason for shutting down segments of the Internet.

In think that in terms of content/censorship the answer is no.  
Then again expression is not a sufficient reason for a curfew either.

I think the only possible acceptable reason for a curfew is a highly probably physical threat to the people - though I am not sure what this would be.  

In parallel the only acceptable reason for shutting down the Internet would be a 'physical' threat to the network or to people's computer systems - e.g. if there were a virus so pernicious that it fried every motherboard after having propagated.  Not even sure that is possible, but since SW controls HW it might be.

So I think that the point is censorship is never a sufficient reason for either a curfew or for shutting down the network.

a.

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