How exactly does one “control” a concept ?
the Internet isn’t a single system. There is no “control” of it whatsoever.
The US has control over some trunks and routes, some IP pools, but those can EASILY and I do believe by the greater good of Internic, AUTOMATICALLY bypassed should they break.
Taking control of the Internet is like taking control of sharing sugar with your neighbor.
More and more people are connecting to the Internet through fewer and fewer ISPs because of DSL and cable. So the head of the FCC calls up AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner and a few others and suddenly 80-90% of the US is cut off. This isn’t about protecting the infrastructure... it’s about limiting communications among the people. Just like the first place a new dictator would grab used to be the radio and TV stations, this is formulating a way to grab whatever they can of the Internet. Will there still be some people with ways to get on the Internet? Yes, but just as taking over the radio and TV stations don’t shut down the last few people with shortwave transmitters it will still keep most people from getting the news.
They said it in the story: controlling the power grids!!
You lose electricity, you lose the internet. Not rocket science. They don’t have to shut down individual websites that way—in one fell swoop they cover EVERYTHING and wipe it out!!! >:-(
It doesn't block out all content the Chinese government considers objectionable. It's actually pretty porous if you have basic technical knowledge to circumvent it. But the psychological effect of its existence has led to massive self-censorship by Chinese internet users--and that is far more effective, and much less expensive, than any content monitoring system.
Most people will grow timid, even in America, if they have good reason to suspect their internet use is being monitored by the government.
Ergo, control. Most packets are routed thru a few trunks. Turn those off, and the ensuing traffic jam would crush the rest of the network. Oh, it might not be completely shut off, but cut to 10% of capacity with everyone banging on their "refresh" key, it's as good as turned off.
The Internet is built to route around failures & blockages, but cannot instantly expand remaining capacity.
Read the bill. He doesn’t want control of the internet, he wants to be able to shut down private access to it in case of an emergency. Just like IRAN shut down the ability of their people to TWITTER what was going on. He can use it to shut us down when he puts us under martial law.
“Taking control of the Internet is like taking control of sharing sugar with your neighbor.”
How do you get your internet service? Through an ISP. There are a variety of tiers to ISP service. As fascism increases, the ISPs will be under increasing government control. Think ATT/Sprint/Level3. Those are Tier 1 providers - they run the internet backbone. Your local ISP likely purchases bandwidth from the Tier 1 providers. They could very easily take it over by controlling the Tier 1 providers.