Can You "Cut Off" the Internet?
Following the Parson Green terror attack in London Donald Trump has said that the internet must be 'cut off' to stop further terror attacks. This raises a very interesting question, Can the internet be 'cut off'?
The Internet
The internet is a global collection of networked systems. The internet is everywhere, a unimaginable amount of computers systems all linked together by a infrastructure of cables, satellites, routers and access points.
The internet is still growing, everyday people are still being connected to the internet for the first time.
Who is in charge?
Well, nobody....everybody. This is a very hard question to answer. The internet is not a product or service that is owned by one company. So nobody actually "owns" the internet. But the infrastructure and access to the global network is a different story. Internet Providers (upstream) own the pieces of the infrastructure that are the internet's foundation. The Upstream Internet Providers all have their own separate network but their networks are connected at Internet Exchange Points allowing interaction between the different networks.
To gain access to the Internet you will have to make use of the service of smaller Internet service providers (with other words pay them money).
But what all these these companies do is provide access. What happens on the internet is a different story, this is where the users become important.
What goes on on the internet depends for the most part on the users, everybody that connects to the internet is therefore kind of a shareholder of the network.
The Movers and Shakers
All the servers, computers and other devices communicate with each other through protocols. Think of protocols as a universal language that all these internet connected machines understand. These protocols are managed by different organisations
The Internet Society: A nonprofit organization that develops Internet standards and policies.
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF): An international organization with an open membership policy. The IETF is split up into different groups. Each group is responsible for a different aspect, for example security.
The Internet Architecture Board (IAB): An IETF committee, the IAB's mission is to oversee the design of Internet protocols and standards.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN): A private nonprofit corporation, ICANN manages the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS). ICANN is responsible for making sure that every domain name links to the correct IP address.
These different organisations make sure that the internet keeps running. However they are not part of one central unit, they all maintain different aspect of the internet. The actual content on the Internet can not be influenced by them and is unregulated.
A beautiful mess
The internet is like a blockchain, a beautiful decentralized network that consists of many different parts, controlled or owned by different people/organizations.
To issue control over the internet would mean that all these different people, companies and organizations would have to agree and work together. Then we have to take into account the billions of users who access the internet, the dark web and other alternate Web networks.
So is it possible? Well, in theory it might be possible but it seems very unlikely that this will ever happen.
Is it a good idea? This is impossible to say, it might do more harm than good. You will also have to wonder if this doesn't open the door for more intrusive actions. Where does it stop?
Will it solve anything? In my opinion no. To solve a problem you must take away the root cause and as far as I know the internet is not the root cause of terrorism.
What do you think, 'Cutting off the internet' Good idea or bad? Let me know in the comment section.
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Cutting the internet means cutting the freedom of speach
That's the dilemma isn't it? How far should we got to battle the wrongs in the world? If the only way to battle injustice is to take away other people's rights, what are we left with?
isn't it so funny that when someone has headaches people says to cut off your head. it's the diseas we should fight not the organ.peolpe of great power only wants to show their power do not care for the problem to solve.
It is not about the problem more about showing people that they are willing to take drastic measures to solve a problem, an indication that they take the problem very seriously and are willing to go to great lengths to solve it. But in this case the proposed solution has nothing to do with the issue at hand.
Often, usually, or always almost, people only take action at the last minute.
Yeah don't throw the baby out with the bath water! 😃
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The internet is also vital economic infrastructure. Cutting off the internet would be silly. I also don't think Trump is stupid enough to try; his own election is in no small part due to the internet's ability to bypass traditional information gatekeepers.
Building a wall is also silly. I think in time this will just fade away. I can't think that Trump wants to be on the receiving end of the backlash he will face if he decides to pursue this folly.
I think Trump, more so than many Politicians, think they must have a solution to every problem. So, he react-speaks and then goes putting pressure on his advisers to come up with some kind of implementation. The thing is, politicians like that can be successful if nobody ever checks up on their follow through, or they have an awesome team behind them. I've seen plenty of business founders like this - and they still have a company because you see the smart, but not charismatic, people behind him doing their best to not roll their eyes.
Can't argue with that. Trump runs the office like he would a company. Could be good or turn out to be the worst thing ever.