Internet ‘Kill Switch’ Dropped From Cybersecurity Bill

The much feared Obama Internet ‘kill switch’ has been dropped from the latest incarnation of the cybersecurity bill which was introduced yesterday, but the White House still claims that it can intervene in the world wide web under the 1934 law that created the Federal Communications Commission. “Public apprehension about the possibility of handing the White House a “kill switch” for the Internet has dogged the cybersecurity debate, fueled by a proposal that would have codified emergency powers for the president in the event of a catastrophic attack,” reports the Hill.

Indeed, cybersecurity advocate Joe Lieberman ominously pushed for the ‘kill switch’ provision to be included in the bill by citing the Chinese system of Internet policing as a model to which the United States should aspire.As we have documented, China routinely censors the Internet and cuts off access in order to hide evidence of government corruption and to cover up atrocities committed by the state. Although language allowing the President to flip a figurative kill switch to shut down parts of the Internet is gone, the White House still claims that it already retains such powers under the law that created the Federal Communications Commission in 1934. This law states that if a “state of public peril or disaster or other national emergency” exists, the president may “authorize the use or control of any…station or device.” Despite the more controversial aspects having disappeared from the bill, it still contains plenty of provisions that represent a sweeping power grab on behalf of the federal government.

One such provision would empower the Department of Homeland Security to conduct “risk assessments” of private companies in certain sectors and force them to comply with expensive mandates to secure their systems. Despite the Internet kill switch provision being dropped from the bill, the web as a whole still faces innumerable threats to the anonymity, privacy and freedom of speech of those who use it. Despite the recent defeat of SOPA and PIPA, protests over governments signing up for ACTA, a global treaty that grants copyright holders sweeping direct powers to demand ISPs remove material from the Internet on a whim, have swept Europe.