The 61 Countries a Mad Despot Could Instantly Unplug From the Internet
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Re: The 61 Countries a Mad Despot Could Instantly Unplug From the Internet
#2Shouldn't having a "Mad Despot" also be a requirement? Both Island and Greenland are on the list, but are both democratic.
They probably have few internet providers because they are so small.
Greenland has a population of 56K. Iceland 320K and almost all live in the same city.
Re: The 61 Countries a Mad Despot Could Instantly Unplug From the Internet
#3Shouldn't having a "Mad Despot" also be a requirement? Both Island and Greenland are on the list, but are both democratic. They probably have few internet providers because they are so small. Greenland has a population of 56K. Iceland 320K and almost all live in the same city.
In this case the article seems to be taking the approach (for fun I suspect) of "If you wanted to be a Mad Despot, and part of your plan was to cut off the Internet to achieve this, which countries should you target". While Ireland and Greenland are on the list, I thin there are better options for your "average" mad despot. On the other hand, you have to start somewhere...
Re: The 61 Countries a Mad Despot Could Instantly Unplug From the Internet
#4Shouldn't having a "Mad Despot" also be a requirement? Both Island and Greenland are on the list, but are both democratic. They probably have few internet providers because they are so small. Greenland has a population of 56K. Iceland 320K and almost all live in the same city.
Agreed. It seems odd that the countries author chose to highlight are not special for much of anything but their size. If you are going to go for small countries, might well talk about individual states, prefectures, counties, etc. I bet if the Governor of Hawaii was a "Mad Despot" he could turn off the internet just as well as President of Iceland.
PS. Greenland is really odd, because it is part of Denmark. Why did they break it out separately?
Re: The 61 Countries a Mad Despot Could Instantly Unplug From the Internet
#5Shouldn't having a "Mad Despot" also be a requirement? Both Island and Greenland are on the list, but are both democratic. They probably have few internet providers because they are so small. Greenland has a population of 56K. Iceland 320K and almost all live in the same city.
I don't think the map relates to the "Mad Despot", and I think it's only about risk of disconnection (including accidental disconnection). I was shocked to see Portugal there at first, but I guess they have transatlantic cables to USA or maybe to UK and not much to mainland / Spain, and that's why they are low risk.
Original's Renesys (the map creator) here: http://www.renesys.com/blog/2012/11/could-it-happen-in-your-... (I don't have time to parse it now, my first paragraph is just an idea)
Re: The 61 Countries a Mad Despot Could Instantly Unplug From the Internet
#6Surprising that china is low risk in their map. Their metric is clearly flawed, for china already "blocks" off the whole Internet.
Re: The 61 Countries a Mad Despot Could Instantly Unplug From the Internet
#7Surprising that china is low risk in their map. Their metric is clearly flawed, for china already "blocks" off the whole Internet.
I would argue the exact contrary. China tried and failed to control their internet. The famous virtual wall of china is very easily surmounted.
The metric isn't about who is more or less likely to try to isolate the country from the internet but rather how hard is it to actually accomplish such a feat?
Re: The 61 Countries a Mad Despot Could Instantly Unplug From the Internet
#8How are India, Estonia and Latvia on the same rung as highly suppression-ist China?
This is clearly facetious.
Re: The 61 Countries a Mad Despot Could Instantly Unplug From the Internet
#9Shouldn't having a "Mad Despot" also be a requirement? Both Island and Greenland are on the list, but are both democratic. They probably have few internet providers because they are so small. Greenland has a population of 56K. Iceland 320K and almost all live in the same city.
Agreed. It seems odd that the countries author chose to highlight are not special for much of anything but their size. If you are going to go for small countries, might well talk about individual states, prefectures, counties, etc. I bet if the Governor of Hawaii was a "Mad Despot" he could turn off the internet just as well as President of Iceland. PS. Greenland is really odd, because it is part of Denmark. Why did…
Greenland is .gl, Denmark is .dk. On the internet they are different. :)
Re: The 61 Countries a Mad Despot Could Instantly Unplug From the Internet
#10Shouldn't having a "Mad Despot" also be a requirement? Both Island and Greenland are on the list, but are both democratic. They probably have few internet providers because they are so small. Greenland has a population of 56K. Iceland 320K and almost all live in the same city.
Agreed. It seems odd that the countries author chose to highlight are not special for much of anything but their size. If you are going to go for small countries, might well talk about individual states, prefectures, counties, etc. I bet if the Governor of Hawaii was a "Mad Despot" he could turn off the internet just as well as President of Iceland. PS. Greenland is really odd, because it is part of Denmark. Why did…
Because it is an extreme case: small population, almost no diversity, and on an isolated island. There aren't many internet connections to Greenland and there isn't much demand for different ISPs either. So cutting a cable or an ISP off of the Internet cuts off the whole country (it's an autonomous country).
So, a mad despot or a sloppy construction worker could cut Greenland off of the internet.
Another interesting case mentioned in the Article is The Netherlands: a small country, a small population, but a enormous amount of ISPs and connections to other countries. Good luck cutting that off as a whole, you mad despot!