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In a speech in South Carolina recently Donald Trump called for
a shutdown of the Internet to hinder ISIS, saying
"We’re losing a lot of people because of the Internet
and we have to do something. We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people.
We have to talk to them about maybe in certain areas closing that Internet up in someway."
The media spun into a firestorm of outrage, declaring Trump's idea completely implausible
and they're not wrong.
The truth is America doesn't control the Internet in other places of the world, and most American
sites already censor or shut down terrorist activity anyway. So in order to prevent ISIS
from using the Internet, we would have to march into Syria or Iraq and physically tear
the routers off of their walls.
Or, well, what Trump said.
“I’m going to bomb the sh*t out of them”
So the only real option a hypothetical President Trump would have of turning off the Internet
would be, well, here in America.
And you know what? He could if he wanted to.
It would be huuuuge.
In 2006, the Department of Homeland Security created SOP303.
Standard operating procedure 303 gives the federal government the authority
to turn off the Internet in the case of a national emergency
This has been deemed by many as the Internet "kill switch".
Many are concerned about the unchecked power this gives the government in controlling our
our access to the Internet. It also completely infringes on our First Amendment rights.
“Oh, freedom of speech, freedom of speech”
In 2012 the Electronic Privacy Information Center submitted a Freedom of Information Act Request
asking the Department of Homeland Security to fully disclose the text of SOP303.
To this day, they are still fighting for the disclosure in the Supreme Court .
The Internet has only been shut off by the government once since the SOP was drafted
in 2006.
In 2011 a homeless man was killed by a bay area rapid transit officer for wielding a knife
The *** sparked numerous protests in BART stations.
A month later, officials turned off cellular networks within BART’s platforms for three
hours to deter any more disruptive activity.
Protesters called foul, and even alluded to the Arab Spring protests in Egypt with the
hashtag #muBARTek.
So Trump’s words might seem ridiculous, but they’re not that far-fetched.
Although now that I think about it, I doubt Trump would want to interrupt his constant media coverage
by turning off our Internet.