[governance] Could the U.S. shut down the internet?

[Norbert Bollow]

> On Sat, Feb 5, 2011 at 9:13 PM, Avri Doria <avri at acm.org> wrote:
> > But I think there is a good warning that we should heed in this
> > note and that we should start preparing now for the next regime
> > that decides to take the network down, that we need to support
> > those who are being prosecuted now for their content and we should
> > work on the diversification and distribution of control and
> > governance.

Are you sure that it's wise to support *all* "who are being prosecuted
now for their content"?

I'd suggest that some content is so bad that it's clearly only
appropriate to persecute those who would put such content online,
provided that due process is followed etc. Commercial child
pornography is a famous (and much-abused) example.

I'd suggest that beyond that there's a gray area of types of content
concerning which different views are legitimately possible.

And then there are also categories of content which are clearly
legitimate from a human rights perspective, even if powerful or
otherwise influential people might seek to suppress some
information. In recent discussions the primary concern was about
oppressive government authorities, but we need to keep in mind that
sometimes also private sector entities wish to suppress information
by any (more or less) legal means available. And I think that given
humanity's sad history with regard to religion-related violence,
the potential possibility of some kind of terrorist group seeking
to suppress specific types of religious content (that they disagree
with) should be taken into consideration in the list of dangers to
defend against.

I think that we should develop a comprehensive strategy for addressing
specifically the suppression of kinds of content which are clearly
legitimate. I agree that one element of such a strategy must be to
support people who are persecuted for having published such (clearly
legitimate) content. Further key elements should IMO be to work on the
technical level to make the suppression of legitimate content more
difficult, and at the legislative level for the correction of laws
that can be abused too easily.

Fouad Bajwa <fouadbajwa at gmail.com> wrote:
> -- is this regime something that may be in development in the form of
> what happened during the December consultations in New York and CSTD
> in Geneva? Something that may evolve through enhanced cooperation
> banner?

I wouldn't expect anything that could potentially reduce the power
of governments to be an outcome from activities that are carried out
under such a banner.

Greetings,
Norbert
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