Egypt apparently does:
Almost simultaneously, the handful of companies that pipe the Internet into and out of Egypt went dark as protesters were gearing up for a fresh round of demonstrations calling for the end of President Hosni Mubarak’s nearly 30-year rule, experts said.
Egypt has apparently done what many technologists thought was unthinkable for any country with a major Internet economy: It unplugged itself entirely from the Internet to try and silence dissent.
Pretty incredible. Experts say that it would be much harder (if not impossible) for this to occur in the US due to a number of different reasons.
But it’s fascinating to see so much governmental control enforced in terms of the internet and the world wide web.
I can only imagine the panic as some may have felt it was the Y2K bug or something – digital armageddon for a few moments.
Will P says
That expert must not have read this article: http://news.techworld.com/security/3228198/obama-internet-kill-switch-plan-approved-by-us-senate-panel/
It’s pretty easy to get laws passed when you add the moniker “national security.”
Which I am all for, so long as powers are not abused like the Egyptian government has exercised.
BenJPickett says
The problem then becomes, who draws the line of what is and isn’t abuse? I think that the link you posted does classify itself as abuse. The internet has become a very important form of communication and the government themself proves that when they ask Twitter to delay scheduled down time. Getting rid of that communication channel isn’t an infringement on our rights by any means but it is the removal of a crucial service of fast and readily available emergency information.