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A million people took to the streets of Egypt on Tuesday to protest the Mubarak regime and call for democratic reform. The Egyptian government responded, again, by cutting off Internet access and plunging the nation into digital darkness.
Such drastic action is a new way for governments to smother popular movements worldwide... just as more and more people are turning to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and using cell phones to speak out against authoritarian regimes.
We also have cause for concern at home: Plans are afoot that could give the U.S president the authority to flip the "kill switch" on our Internet.
Senators Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Thomas Carper (D-Dela.) introduced legislation in the last Congress that would give the executive branch vague and unchecked authority to cut off “critical infrastructure” in times of crisis.
The "Protect Cyberspace as a National Asset Act" wasn't passed in 2010. But, according to a recent report in Wired, Sen. Collins plans to reintroduce the bill in the new Congress.1
We need to be dead certain that no bill gives government the authority to cut off Internet access. Such power, in the hands of the nation's top executive, poses a drastic threat to our First Amendment right to free speech.
Please send this letter to your senators telling them to vote "NO" on any legislation that gives government the unchecked authority to black out the Internet.
The events in Egypt show the power of the Internet in fostering free speech and reform worldwide. Both progressive and conservative activists in the United States have relied on the Web to rally supporters and build popular movements.
We must guard against any effort to curtail our access to the open Internet.
Thank you for taking action,
Timothy Karr
Campaign Director
Save the Internet
Free Press Action Fund
www.freepress.net
1. Wired, January 28, 2011, "Internet ‘Kill Switch' Legislation Back in Play." http://act2.freepress.net/go/
INTERNET KILL SWITCH LEGISLATION BACK IN PLAY 28JAN11
Legislation granting the president internet-killing powers is to be re-introduced soon to a Senate committee, the proposal’s chief sponsor told Wired.com on Friday.The resurgence of the so-called “kill switch” legislation came the same day Egyptians faced an internet blackout designed to counter massive demonstrations in that country.
The bill, which has bipartisan support, is being floated by Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican ranking member on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The proposed legislation, which Collins said would not give the president the same power Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak is exercising to quell dissent, sailed through the Homeland Security Committee in December but expired with the new Congress weeks later.
The bill is designed to protect against “significant” cyber threats before they cause damage, Collins said.
“My legislation would provide a mechanism for the government to work with the private sector in the event of a true cyber emergency,” Collins said in an e-mail Friday. “It would give our nation the best tools available to swiftly respond to a significant threat.”
The timing of when the legislation would be re-introduced was not immediately clear, as kinks to it are being worked out.
An aide to the Homeland Security committee described the bill as one that does not mandate the shuttering of the entire internet. Instead, it would authorize the president to demand turning off access to so-called “critical infrastructure” where necessary.
An example, the aide said, would require infrastructure connected to “the system that controls the floodgates to the Hoover dam” to cut its connection to the net if the government detected an imminent cyber attack.
What’s unclear, however, is how the government would have any idea when a cyber attack was imminent or why the operator wouldn’t shutter itself if it detected a looming attack.
About two dozen groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Library Association, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Center for Democracy & Technology, were skeptical enough to file an open letter opposing the idea. They are concerned that the measure, if it became law, might be used to censor the internet.
“It is imperative that cyber-security legislation not erode our rights,” (.pdf) the groups wrote last year to Congress.
A congressional white paper (.pdf) on the measure said the proposal prohibits the government from targeting websites for censorship “based solely on activities protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
Oddly, that’s exactly the same language in the Patriot Act used to test whether the government can wiretap or investigate a person based on their political beliefs or statements.
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