Internet terrorism

I’ve got a bit of a headache, so please excuse the format of this post.

• There is proposed legislation in the US Senate which would grant the President the ability to take down the internet in the US without any sort of judicial or legislative oversight.
  • As a result of the recent Egyptian internet blockade, the legislation is likely to be revised somewhat, though I doubt that it will be revised to the extent that it should be.
• I don’t believe that anyone should have that ability, under any circumstances. Call me a free-market libertarian, but I think the fact that the ability exists could cause more problems than it could solve.
  • According to the bill’s sponsors, the purpose is to prevent internet-based terrorism.
    • It seems to me as though a nationwide internet outage would cause significantly more fear among US citizens than, say, a malfunctioning power plant somewhere five states away.
      • In effect, the President would then be multiplying the terror caused by the terrorist.
• My opinion that no government entity should be able to shut down internet access is complicated by my opinion that the internet should be a public utility, like water or roads.
  • Most Americans currently have, at most, one ISP offering high-speed access in their area. In most cases, it’s a government-sponsored monopoly. In the others, as in the country at-large, it is, at best, an oligarchy.
  • The main cost to the ISP is wiring the final stretch of the network into your home. Once that wire is set up, it costs them almost nothing to continue providing internet access.
    • The main cost of a highway is building the road. Once the road is set up, it costs almost nothing to continue providing transportation access.
  • Internet access has become a necessity for many people. The unparalleled access to information it provides enables people to learn about anything they need to know, communicate with the people who are important to them around the world, and practice their democratic freedoms.
    • People who cannot afford to pay $60 a month to an oligarchic ISP shouldn’t be limited to public workstations, for instance at libraries which impose limits on free usage.
  • In short, high-speed internet access should be considered a human right. Everybody on the planet should have a means by which to access it whenever they need it.
  • If the government built and maintained the infrastructure, it would grant even the poorest Americans the same quality of access given by default to the upper class.
  • The monopolistic ISP pricing policies almost seems like a form of terrorism. They scare people away. It does not cost Comcast $60 a month to allow a bunch of ones and zeros to flow into and out of my house through cables that are already there.
• If the government controlled the pipes, they could close them at will. This worries me. Does it outweigh my belief that the internet needs to become a public utility? No.