Internet Shutdown Can It Happen Here?

We like to think the US is immune from government interference with the Internet--but is it?

We normally weigh in only on technical aspects of application performance, but as the Internet shutdown in Egypt shows, equally important to application performance are the legal, regulatory and political environments in which the networks operate. When Internet users' interests are subjugated to government interference, it's not merely annoying, it can bring entire economies to a standstill. When Internet connectivity was cut, Egypt's economy seized up, and international commerce was affected. Now that is an application performance-related issue!

Governments  that require ISPs to operate under easily revocable licenses or legal permissions may start with good intentions, but can easily end up adversely affecting commerce. And governments that bully ISPs into do their bidding, are asking for trouble.

Indonesia has threatened RIM's license to operate in the country if they do not give the government the right to monitor and block Internet traffic to mobile devices that the government deems pornographic-and they have demanded that RIM enable Indonesian security officials to monitor BlackBerry services. These decisions affect application performance and will have economic repercussions.

Imagine what would happen if the Internet was shut down in the US. We expect it be almost as bad as turning out all electrical power in the country. Such actions have serious, long-term, economic consequences. So to assess our risk, it is important to answer a lot of questions, such as:

Are there any government rules/licenses/regulations/anti-terrorism laws/executive findings (some of which might date back 100 years), that could be dusted off in the US to demand shutting down some or all of the Internet in the US?

If some government body in the US demanded such a shutdown, would the ISPs comply?

If they did, do we have enough ISPs in the US that it would be impossible to completely turn off the Internet?

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