Comments on: Why dictators (don't) shut down the Internet

By: Damian Barajas

Damian Barajas — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:53:00 +0000

Its been my experience that its the end users who don’t understand what the internet is for, and the owners of the infrastructure have a very clear idea of what its for. And vice versa.

By: dragonfrog

dragonfrog — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 14:39:00 +0000

A reason to keep it on – if you gain more from keeping your activities more or less hidden, and from sometimes catching people as they attempt to evade your censorship.

By: Ping Kee

Ping Kee — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 13:37:00 +0000

The internet is accessible in Myanmar.

By: Adrian Neill

Adrian Neill — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 13:02:00 +0000

Shutting off the internet is the best way to get the attention of the people who were previously at home being apathetic to your government and entertained by on-line games and videos. Those people are now bored, angry, and want to know why the internet is off, and their going to come looking for answers. They will probably find them, and quite often join whatever cause you tried to shut off the internet to stop in the first place.

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:05:00 +0000

Shhh! Don’t let the Republican Party hear you say that!

By: Florian Bösch

Florian Bösch — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:01:00 +0000

Shutting down the internet is a guaranteed way to kneecap your country for decades (if not centuries) to come. It’s the perfect way for any aspiring 2nd or 1st world country to get fastracked to 3rd world country.

By: jbond

jbond — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 08:23:00 +0000

The whole internet, or just part of it? Just the parts that allow free speech? Or just the parts that affect copyright?

By: NickPheas

NickPheas — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 07:24:00 +0000

Far sighted nut job dictators mitigate both problems by not allowing the internet to start with. North Korea and Myanmar seem to have managed it.

By: george kyaw naing

george kyaw naing — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 04:10:00 +0000

Another reason may be they don’t understand the impact of the internet very much. They may underestimate its powers. This will change with the younger generations of dictators.

http://ethicminds.blogspot.sg/

By: Jonathan Eyler-Werve

Jonathan Eyler-Werve — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 03:49:00 +0000

“Why not shut down the Internet the instant trouble breaks out?”

Because there is ALWAYS trouble breaking out. It’s a misconception that places like Cairo or Iraq or Libya (pre-overthrow) are more or less stable and their leaders are generally popular. Instead, it’s a decades long game of whack-a-mole. It’s hard to know when trouble is “real” or whether you can just burn a couple houses out and have everyone go home.

By: Xploder

Xploder — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 02:07:00 +0000

As to your 1. A., I’d suggest that any dictator that knows his ass from a hole in the ground would know that if his citizens didn’t have the internet in the first place, then his economy was not dependent on it. That’s just top of the head, thinking in terms of a few years back and say, central African, Middle Asian type situations.

Then again, I might be completely out of my gourd, who knows.

By: Giannis

Giannis — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 01:07:00 +0000

The problem is that they can’t shut down the internet but they can control it by not letting you write or do anything you want….They always check for keywords or phrases against them or their policy and you can get in a real trouble if they catch you doing something “Stupid” :)

By: SedanChair

SedanChair — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 01:07:00 +0000

Also, your wife needs to track her Amazon shipments.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/15/assads-at-war-killing-shopping

By: Kl-0

Kl-0 — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 00:57:00 +0000

Warren Ellis’ (?)

By: tmcsweeney

tmcsweeney — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 00:54:00 +0000

There is a 3rd reason (and arguably it should be #1) for shutting down the internet: denying an asset to your enemy. Ad-hoc rebel uprisings tend to not have robust independent communication tools (i.e. military radios) and rely on the public internet to communicate and coordinate. Being cut off hampers the uprisings efforts without seriously impacting the better equipped government troops.

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 00:27:00 +0000

Because businesses in those countries make a heap of money selling stuff to first world countries and they need communications to do that. Money from those businesses helps prop the Government up.