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Deliberate Internet Shutdowns

schneier.com

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Re: Deliberate Internet Shutdowns

#171

Post by hodgesrm »

dcuthbertson wrote: post #91
rconti wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

== Call To Action

Thank you. There are so many TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) that they overlap significantly. Maybe the coffee hasn't kicked in yet, but I didn't know what CTA meant in this context. I thought it might be related to PSA (Public Service Announcement), so I searched "CTA announcement" and got Chicago Transit Authority and California Teacher's Association - obviously not helpful.

At the University of Michigan many moons ago CTA stood for Central Tripping Authority, a largely imaginary collective devoted to taking hallucinogens. (Regularly.) There was CTA graffiti all over East Quadrangle dormitory when I lived there. The meaning was well-understood.

Moral: A good TLA can be surprisingly memorable.

(edited)

Re: Deliberate Internet Shutdowns

#172

Post by indigo945 »

It's strange to read so many countries listed in an article about deliberate internet shutdowns, and even India called out as the world's shutdown capitol, and not one mention of China. Internet shutdowns during important political events, or even just national holidays, are common practice in China, have been for decades, and this is widely known. How is it not China that wins the great prize here?

Re: Deliberate Internet Shutdowns

#174

Post by sowbug »

venturecruelty wrote: post #169
sowbug wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's nice for writing to be sufficiently self-contained for the reader to get the basic meaning without research. How does it affect your sense of perspicacity when a sentence forces you to consult a dictionary just to keep up?

I'm still not sure why this is the author's problem. If a piece of writing is too challenging, you are welcome to disengage from it, and not demand more from the author.

You are absolutely right that communication need not be effective.

Re: Deliberate Internet Shutdowns

#175

Post by crossroadsguy »

rconti wrote: post #153
crossroadsguy wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CTA is very obscure. As a mobile dev I refuse to call CTA as anything other than click or tap to action in which case it should be TPA. Also many folks (esp. PMs confuse CTAs with button clicks). Anyway, CTA in this context didn’t even ring a distant bell either for call or click and I am glad it didn’t.

Wait, the acronym for "Tap To Action" is "TPA"?

Nah, I meant to type TTA but now that I have mistyped TPA I should make that Tap Pour Action - Tap for Action (I am not trying the double meaning here, just to clarify).

Re: Deliberate Internet Shutdowns

#176

Post by IAmGraydon »

blueflow wrote: post #158
IAmGraydon wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one in their right mind believes that you can accomplish widespread, high speed communication via "talking to people IRL" like you can with the internet. It has become a very important way that we share information broadly, deal with emergencies, and stay informed. Going back to the stone age is not a good option at this point. But you know that, and you're just posting nonsense to have an argument.

> No one in their right mind believes that you can accomplish widespread, high speed communication via "talking to people IRL" like you can with the internet. Nobody claimed that. I'm not sure whether this sort of comms is meaningful at all or whether "staying informed" is just the dopamine thing in effect. > Going back to the stone age Its actually 20 years ago. That's less than the median age.

You think the internet started in 2005? Are you sure you belong here?

Re: Deliberate Internet Shutdowns

#177

Post by Thorrez »

ursAxZA wrote: post #39
dylan604 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in a state actor, or in a private operator. multiple satellite operators are coming on line. what are the odds all of them coordinate to shut down in one region invalidating using the other providers as fail over?

I might be mistaken, but as far as I know there is currently no other LEO broadband provider that is meaningfully comparable at a global scale. Starlink is often treated as the reference point not because it is perfect or fully resilient, but because there is no second network at a similar scale that could realistically serve as a failover today. If we imagine a hypothetical future where three mature operators exist,…

What about failing over from LEO to geosynchronous? E.g. Viasat?

Re: Deliberate Internet Shutdowns

#178

Post by Thorrez »

ezoe wrote: post #68

> In the US, for example, shutdowns would be hard to enforce. Is that really? US government has tanks, bombers, missiles and tactical nukes while "a well regulated Militia" have petty rifles and motolovs. It's very easy for US government to cause state-wide power blackout, effectively shutdown Internet.

The quote has nothing to do with a well regulated militia. It's about whether the technical ability for internet shutdowns has been built or not.

>A country’s ability to shut down the internet depends a lot on its infrastructure. In the US, for example, shutdowns would be hard to enforce. As we saw when discussions about a potential TikTok ban ramped up two years ago, the complex and multifaceted nature of our internet makes it very difficult to achieve. However, as we’ve seen with total nationwide shutdowns around the world, the ripple effects in all aspects of life are immense. (Remember the effects of just a small outage—CrowdStrike in 2024—which crippled 8.5 million computers and cancelled 2,200 flights in the US alone?)

>The more centralized the internet infrastructure, the easier it is to implement a shutdown. If a country has just one cellphone provider, or only two fiber optic cables connecting the nation to the rest of the world, shutting them down is easy.

Nukes and tanks weren't built for internet shutdowns, and it's a ridiculous idea that if the US government decided to do an internet shutdown that they would decide to use a nuke for that.

Re: Deliberate Internet Shutdowns

#179

Post by loweritnow »

I am going to be the odd one out here and say that internet should be cut off during protests and other unrests. It might even slow down colour revolutions and give the state some breathing space to manage public sentiment.

Re: Deliberate Internet Shutdowns

#180

Post by dylan604 »

Thorrez wrote: post #177
ursAxZA wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be mistaken, but as far as I know there is currently no other LEO broadband provider that is meaningfully comparable at a global scale. Starlink is often treated as the reference point not because it is perfect or fully resilient, but because there is no second network at a similar scale that could realistically serve as a failover today. If we imagine a hypothetical future where three mature operators exist,…

What about failing over from LEO to geosynchronous? E.g. Viasat?

Is anyone left doing network from GEO? Places like HughesNet were soooo slow that I can't imagine their users have not all switched to Starlink.
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