It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Originally posted by khimbar
reply to post by cavalryscout
Because it's not about 'killing the internet'.
It's about controlling it, taxing it, charging for it, censoring it, monitoring it. By corporations no one voted for.
Originally posted by Hefficide
reply to post by cavalryscout
Why kill the Internet? Good question - and here's an answer....
Let's say you are a government that wants to do something naughty? Like maybe open fire on a group of protesters who are making noise outside of your Federal building and making a general nuisance of themselves - and you decide "enough is enough" and you send in the riot police to bash heads and send a strong message.
Only that darned Youtube and that God awful Twitter... Yeah they cause quite the uproar when Governments do bad things.
So what to do? Oh, wait... You engage the private telecom companies in the area, bring them into the club so to speak... deputize them basically... Then all you need to do is make a phone call and ~wham~ no information gets out. You can have your way and then, later, when stuff eventually does leak? You can have your cover story and spin already planned out.
How many civil uprisings over the past several years have we ONLY gotten information about because of social media? Several.
Here's a thought. Want to know why genocide in Tibet isn't all the rage on the boards? Could it be because China already HAS this kind of control over THEIR Internet?
One of the greatest tools in a Democratic society is the flow of information.
And precedent? Want to know what the first thing the cops do during any sort of stand-off? They kill the phone lines so that the person inside cannot communicate with the outside world. This is the same concept on a larger scale.
~Heff