China does it. So can we…
A new Senate bill, sponsored by Senator Joseph Lieberman, proposes to give the president the authority “to seize control of or even shut down portions of the Internet,” according to CNET.
The authority granted to the government in the bill, known as the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act (PCNAA), has been likened to an Internet “kill switch.”
The bill would require that private companies–such as “broadband providers, search engines, or software firms,” CNET explains–“immediately comply with any emergency measure or action” put in place by the Department of Homeland Security, or else face fines.
It would also see the creation of a new agency within the Department of Homeland Security, the National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC). Any private company reliant on “the Internet, the telephone system, or any other component of the U.S. ‘information infrastructure'” would be “subject to command” by the NCCC, and some would be required to engage in “information sharing” with the agency, says CBS4.