Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has an idea for stopping ISIS from communicating online. He wants to close the Internet.
"We're losing a lot of people because of the Internet," Trump said Monday at a campaign rally in South Carolina.
Facebook Twitter Google PlusEmbed
Do Donald Trump's Muslim Comments Make the U.S. Less Safe? 2:26
"We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some way."
ISIS has been known for recruiting members online. After the Paris terror attacks, concerns over terrorists using encrypted software led messaging app Telegram to shut down ISIS-related channels.
Still, no other presidential candidate or intelligence official has advocated for "closing" the Internet -- and it's unclear what such an action would mean for a technology that underlies much of the modern economy.
Trump continued, "Somebody will say, 'Oh, freedom of speech, freedom of speech.' These are foolish people."
The comments came on the same day that Trump trashed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Twitter. He called the Washington Post, which Bezos owns, a tax shelter for Amazon.
Bezos, who joined Twitter last month, fired back by suggesting that his private space company launch Trump into space.
While it is entirely proper to shut down sites that are advocating or plotting criminal activity, Trump does not clarify what parts of the internet he would shut down or how broad this would be, and his apparent contempt for freedom of speech and its advocates is deeply disturbing from a Presidential candidate.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. He is a fascist.
We need a Trump sticky. It's not that I mind hearing about it, but he makes news in some way (usually by saying something stupid or crazy) at least twice a week.
Dominus Atheos wrote:We need a Trump sticky. It's not that I mind hearing about it, but he makes news in some way (usually by saying something stupid or crazy) at least twice a week.
Not a bad idea, but its not up to me.
I suppose we could just keep it all in the election thread, but some of his insanity goes beyond the usual, run of the mill politicking.
The way its worded it actually sounds like he believes they can shut down the entire internet, not just certain sites which the US is already capable of.
"May God stand between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk." - Ancient Egyptian Blessing
Ivanova is always right.
I will listen to Ivanova.
I will not ignore Ivanova's recommendations. Ivanova is God.
AND, if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out! - Babylon 5 Mantra
Well to be fair there would be very little to lose from shutting down internet access to people living in say ISIS controlled areas or say Syria entirely. And it would greatly help the west prosecute the current war the way it needs to be done without exposing western civilians to the reality of it.
It has become clear to me in the previous days that any attempts at reconciliation and explanation with the community here has failed. I have tried my best. I really have. I pored my heart out trying. But it was all for nothing.
You win. There, I have said it.
Now there is only one thing left to do. Let us see if I can sum up the strength needed to end things once and for all.
At this point I'm basically certain he's just throwing whatever at the wall and seeing if it sticks. If it does, he runs with it. Of course he (probably) doesn't know the Internet doesn't work like that, but he doesn't care, because he knows that most of his audience doesn't know either. He throws Bill Gates into the mix because he's basically the household god... er, name, of computers and the Internet, to give his assertion a little more legitimacy.
Purple wrote:Well to be fair there would be very little to lose from shutting down internet access to people living in say ISIS controlled areas or say Syria entirely. And it would greatly help the west prosecute the current war the way it needs to be done without exposing western civilians to the reality of it.
The technicals matter less than him rather explicitly shitting all over the first amendment.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
I agree that we really need a Trump thread. It's like "Donald Trump" and "rest of the US election" at this point. I am having trouble keeping tabs on what the latest stupid crap he's come up with, it'd be handy to have it all in one place.
"I reject your reality and substitute my own!" - The official Troll motto, as stated by Adam Savage
Purple wrote:Well to be fair there would be very little to lose from shutting down internet access to people living in say ISIS controlled areas or say Syria entirely. And it would greatly help the west prosecute the current war the way it needs to be done without exposing western civilians to the reality of it.
The technicals matter less than him rather explicitly shitting all over the first amendment.
Not to mention the fact that there would be real diplomatic consequences for the US shutting down portions of the world internet by fiat...
Purple wrote:Well to be fair there would be very little to lose from shutting down internet access to people living in say ISIS controlled areas or say Syria entirely. And it would greatly help the west prosecute the current war the way it needs to be done without exposing western civilians to the reality of it.
The technicals matter less than him rather explicitly shitting all over the first amendment.
Not to mention the fact that there would be real diplomatic consequences for the US shutting down portions of the world internet by fiat...
Depends how large the portions are, but I would argue that the internet is so vital in the modern world that destroying another nation's internet wholesale would be almost comparable to a nuclear strike in severity.
..hardly. At least in a Third World country, it wouldn't make that much of an impact on a society which is not that much more advanced than mid 90s technologically speaking. In international communications it would make a mess, sure, but cutting Net isn't going to hurt that much. Cutting phone and cell operations would be more drastic.
The Romulan Republic wrote:
Depends how large the portions are, but I would argue that the internet is so vital in the modern world that destroying another nation's internet wholesale would be almost comparable to a nuclear strike in severity.
How old are you? You do realize nuclear strikes, like kill people, right?
Elheru Aran wrote:At this point I'm basically certain he's just throwing whatever at the wall and seeing if it sticks. If it does, he runs with it. Of course he (probably) doesn't know the Internet doesn't work like that, but he doesn't care, because he knows that most of his audience doesn't know either. He throws Bill Gates into the mix because he's basically the household god... er, name, of computers and the Internet, to give his assertion a little more legitimacy.
Trump is the sort of executive who doesn't know shit, he just knows how to hire people to do what he wants done. Which may or may not be a good thing to have done, as his past bankruptcies prove. He certainly isn't used to having to answer to others, which, ultimately, an elected official needs to do.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
The Romulan Republic wrote:
Depends how large the portions are, but I would argue that the internet is so vital in the modern world that destroying another nation's internet wholesale would be almost comparable to a nuclear strike in severity.
How old are you? You do realize nuclear strikes, like kill people, right?
Take your stupid, condescending, contentless ad hominem and shove off.
Taking down the internet in a modern economy wouldn't kill people directly, but I'm prepared to be the economic chaos and breakdown in communications would kill a lot of people indirectly.
People would not die. At worst there would be a market crash. But it would not be nearly as dramatic as you imagine.
It has become clear to me in the previous days that any attempts at reconciliation and explanation with the community here has failed. I have tried my best. I really have. I pored my heart out trying. But it was all for nothing.
You win. There, I have said it.
Now there is only one thing left to do. Let us see if I can sum up the strength needed to end things once and for all.
You think a market crash wouldn't kill people? You think the recession of 2008 didn't kill people? You think it isn't responsible, at least in part, for a lot of the violence and extremism in the world today? You think austerity slashing social programs doesn't kill people? You are unaware, perhaps, of the role economic catastrophe played in the rise of the Nazis?
The Romulan Republic wrote:You think a market crash wouldn't kill people? You think the recession of 2008 didn't kill people? You think it isn't responsible, at least in part, for a lot of the violence and extremism in the world today? You think austerity slashing social programs doesn't kill people? You are unaware, perhaps, of the role economic catastrophe played in the rise of the Nazis?
Not in anywhere the same amount as an atomic weapon. Especially not with all the repercussions that using one actually draws with it. You know, the little thing called atomic holocaust.
It has become clear to me in the previous days that any attempts at reconciliation and explanation with the community here has failed. I have tried my best. I really have. I pored my heart out trying. But it was all for nothing.
You win. There, I have said it.
Now there is only one thing left to do. Let us see if I can sum up the strength needed to end things once and for all.
Of course a nuking would kill more people quickly and directly.
But I hope we can agree that an economic crash can wreak devastation on a country through a host of direct and indirect ways. Its a different kind of ruination: slower, less direct, less spectacular. But it is ruinous nonetheless.
The Romulan Republic wrote:Of course a nuking would kill more people quickly and directly.
But I hope we can agree that an economic crash can wreak devastation on a country through a host of direct and indirect ways. Its a different kind of ruination: slower, less direct, less spectacular. But it is ruinous nonetheless.
And it would even to a first world nation produce far fewer deaths. Fact is that the nations most effected by the internet ending are also those best equipped to handle large scale disasters thanks to an abundance of wealth. And those that can't handle such disasters also tend to not be advanced enough to care if the internet breaks.
It has become clear to me in the previous days that any attempts at reconciliation and explanation with the community here has failed. I have tried my best. I really have. I pored my heart out trying. But it was all for nothing.
You win. There, I have said it.
Now there is only one thing left to do. Let us see if I can sum up the strength needed to end things once and for all.
The Romulan Republic wrote:Taking down the internet in a modern economy wouldn't kill people directly, but I'm prepared to be the economic chaos and breakdown in communications would kill a lot of people indirectly.
Quite a few of us remember how to do things without the internet. It would be inconvenient, not a disaster. Stop hyperventilating.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
