Senators decry link between Egypt, 'kill switch' bill (Lieberman +)

[indimuse]

Source: CNET News

Three U.S. senators who want to give the president emergency powers over the Internet are protesting comparisons with the "kill switch" highlighted by Egypt's Net disconnection.
In a statement yesterday, the politicians said their intent was to allow the president "to protect the U.S. from external cyber attacks," not to shut down the Internet, and announced that they would revise their legislation to explicitly prohibit that from happening.
"Some have suggested that our legislation would empower the president to deny U.S. citizens access to the Internet," said the statement from Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Senator Tom Carper, (D-Del.). "Nothing could be further from the truth." Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, is chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Internet kill switch


They said, however, that they'll make sure their forthcoming legislation "contains explicit language prohibiting the president from doing what President Mubarak did."


Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20030332-281.html#ixzz1CpAdKVVg

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20030332-281.html

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abuses of power and loss of freedoms ...hmm..

[Enrique]

1. they should prohibit it from being technically possible

there's "explicit language prohibiting" all kinds of things that presidents end up doing anyway.

[karynnj]

5. That might not be possible

The idea is a kill switch that can take down the internet. How can you condition the mechanism to determine the motive of the President?

[RKP5637]

2. It's all relative, it depends on who is president and what type of politicians we have if the

Internet were shut down. It could lead to a significant abuse of power and loss of freedom of communications.

[Jefferson23]

3. Right, b/c we can always rely on who is presiding as president in any given administration. n/t

[w4rma]

4. Any President who would shut down the internet would ignore the laws, too. (nt)

[swilton]

10. Which comes first?

Ignoring the laws or shutting down the internet?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

11. A valid point but that doesn't mean we NOT have a 1st amendment

just because some rat bastard might ignore it.

We have it so when he does ignore it we have the justification to remediate.

Law is an agreement before-the-fact of how law abiding citizens will deal with problems within their society.

[decidedlyso]

6. I hope everything is becoming clearer as to what is happening

with our government.

[AndyTiedye]

7. Any Such "Kill Switch", If it Did Exist, Would be a Terrorist Target Itself

Imagine the disruption that could be caused if some unauthorized party triggered the "kill switch"
and shut down the Internet!

The Internet was designed to be robust enough to survive a nuclear war or just about anything else.
Putting in a "kill switch" destroys that robustness.

[rasputin1952]

8. Precisely, such a "device" would be aiding and abetting any

individual or group that wished to do us harm...either foreign or domestic.

It would also violate the First Amendment as well as give whatever future nutcase came into power an incredible amount of power to disrupt communications, not just here, but worldwide. I am actually amazed that any credible public servant would even consider such a decie, they should be working against such a device.

It's not just the net, it's that entire world is connected through this little marvel. One person or entity could disrupt power grids, transportation, information, flows of cash and commodities...I used to think I was worried about the "football" that is always close to the president...at least when Reagan was president and really scared when that idiot bush was in power. Now I have a larger worry in that virtually everything could come to a halt with the flip of a "switch"...rest assured, some lunatic is out there working on this, and we need to be preventing such things.

[hayu_lol]

9. So many users make their living and/or do really serious research...

on the net. These, and others like them, are legislators totally out of touch with present reality(what else is new).

From students trying to get homework assignments done to seniors trying to stay in touch with distant family members to people who work at home using a corporate mainframe to...you name it. We are very much tied to the net at this time.

Americans have taken a beating over the past few years...this might be the flame to set us off.

Give the people a switch to turn off legislators like these who wish to stay in the limelight. They are not our friends.

[saras]

12. Aside from its legality or constitutionality...

As far as I know, no serious researcher has ever advanced a hypothetical situation in which an internet kill switch would be a useful defense.

There simply doesn't seem to be any kind of cyber-attack that the kill switch would successfully defend against, let alone one where it's the best thing.

After all, if someone attacks the Internet, their goal is to shut it down, right? Responding with a kill switch is like replacing bulletproof vests with ones made out of plastic explosive, based on the logic that anyone close to you who tries to shoot you will get killed too...

If something specific is being attacked, simply disconnect that thing from the Internet. No problem.

The only thing a kill switch defends you against is the general public using the internet against a problematic government, or the bizarrely hypothetical situation of the entire population, especially all the smart ones, going batshit crazy and attacking their own legitimate government at once.

[truthisfreedom]

13. They're trying to make us believe that they can change their legislation to "simply take the phone

off the hook until the harassing party stops calling."

Fat chance.

It's a fucking kill switch. Period. If they wanted to make it a kill switch, WE'D BE IN CHARGE OF IT. Assholes.

[Demeter]

14. The Only reason for a "Kill Switch" Is the Exact Purpose Egypt Did It

To stifle communications and support a corrupt regime.

[panzerfaust]

15. No link at all

Trust me on this

Joe Goebbels

[liskddksil]

16. Ahh the DLC's greatest hits are at it again

Looks like their plans got exposed this week.

[yurbud]

17. the assholes hate getting caught carrying their masters water