Road to dictatorship 030311

The Internet shutdown in Libya, condemned by the American government, involved a new way to turn off web access for an entire country, lesson learned. Earlier this year, the total Internet blockade in Egypt backfired, emboldened protesters. China is known for blocking Internet services, but it’s not just China.  Last June Senators Lieberman, Collins and Carper introduced the “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010″. One vague provision in the bill gave the president the power to “authorize emergency measures.”  Devil in the details, it became known as the Internet “kill switch” bill even though the words ‘kill’ and ‘switch’ are not found in the bill.

We couldn’t condemn the action in other countries while at the same time plan it here. No one would even suggest such a thing, right? Right?

Failing to pass in 2010 the legislation was re-branded the “Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act of 2011.” Note the buzz of Freedom in a bill that gives the government power suppress freedom. Ironically, it was re-introduced on the same day as the Egyptian shutdown when President Obama called on the Egyptian government to reverse its interference with Internet access.

The new bill however, doesn’t give the president control of a “Big Switch” rather little switches are given to bureaucrats at Homeland Security.  Everyone knows how responsible Homeland Security bureaucrats are; they took the fun out of flying and created a rainbow of alerts.  Envision a vast warehouse of ten’s of thousands of bureaucrats with one hand hovering over their kill switches as they surf the Internet looking for something that offends. The rainbow becomes a blinding White light kill alert when government missteps are publicly exposed.

Building a nation on the free exchange of ideas, the founding fathers institutionalized freedom of the press.  However even Thomas Jefferson, an outspoken advocate of a free press, as President attempted to suppress that free press.  Every administration since has attempted to control, suppress or distort the free flow of information.  The last administration attempted to institutionalize a misinformation bureau with in government, which may have gone underground to a secret government when caught in spotlight for free information.

Jefferson failed to halt critical voices because he controlled no switches to shut down the voices of the people. Government control of information is the fast lane to dictatorships. Giving such control to faceless bureaucrats is building a dictatorship of collective irresponsibility where all are the ultimate losers.