Internet Kill Switch E-Book

Catherine Dumont

• Herausgeber: BookThug
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 30

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

The "Internet Kill Switch", as it is known worldwide, is a protective "countermeasure". It is the ability of governments to restrict or directly block access to the Internet: turn off all servers and connections. Considering all that the Internet entails in our daily lives, it is an extremely powerful weapon. Some consider it as a key tool for national security, allowing governments to respond immediately in times of crisis or cyber-attacks. Others fear a potential abuse of authority, claiming that it infringes on civil liberties and democratic values. Is it possible to implement this measure as a global reconfiguration, and why would it be done?

Leseprobe

WWW Reloaded

The idea of an Internet Kill Switch arises, both locally and on a global scale, as a kind of protective “countermeasure”. It is the ability of governments to restrict or directly block access to the Internet: shut down all servers and connections. Considering all that the Internet entails in our daily lives, it is an extremely powerful weapon.

“Internet Kill Switch” is more of a descriptive or discursive term than a formal or technical name. It is a concept that occupies a central role in debates about the relationship between the Internet, state control and individual freedoms. Opinions are divided between those who claim that it is an essential tool for national security, as it allows governments to respond immediately in times of crisis or cyber-attacks, and those who claim that it is a tool for potential abuse of authority, which also infringes on civil liberties and democratic values.

The very idea that a government can shut down the Internet generates intrigue and controversy. Several countries have used this tool in times of “crisis”: for example, it was used during the Arab Spring, the uprising that ended the Mubarak government in Egypt in 2011.

But there is yet another level of blackout possible: a global one. When influential and powerful sectors such as the World Economic Forum suggest the possibility of a global Internet blackout, the issue takes on a new dimension. We must think of much more than just responses to possible crises: it could be a measure of global reconfiguration, what they themselves have named “the great reset”.

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The Button

Since the beginning of the Cold War, the idea was forged that the leaders of the major powers (the United States and Russia) had a button in their offices, which many imagined to be red in color and protected by a transparent plastic cover, which would trigger the order to carry out a nuclear attack. The picture of the lone leader who, in a fit of rapture, could unleash a nuclear war by pressing a button, is so powerful that it has remained in our imagination, and has also been picked up by different movies.

Of course, such a button never existed, and in fact the protocols for carrying out nuclear attacks require several instances of approval, and could in no way respond to the criteria or whim of a single person. Or at least it should not be. The tensions between Trump and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, fueled this controversy: in 2018, the North Korean leader assured that his country had completed its nuclear forces, and that he had the “launch button” on his desk. The then US president responded through his Twitter account that he also had a nuclear button, only “bigger and more powerful”.

It is true that a nuclear attack could destroy not only a given country, but also a good part of the earth, with devastating medium and long-term effects, as we learned from the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

But in recent decades another “button” has emerged, this time threatening to shut down one of our most beloved and ubiquitous tools, the Internet. Just think of the feeling of isolation and anguish when we have no signal on our cell phones, or when our homes and workplaces are offline for some reason. We despair as the minutes go by, and soon realize how much we need to be connected, whether for the most superfluous reasons such as checking social networks or sending a message, or for work, financial, commercial or logistical activities.