Perhaps what is most remarkable about events in Egypt over the past few weeks is that authorities were able to switch off access to the internet for five days. That has not occurred in any other country in the course of the 20 year history of the internet. Internet access has continued during political turmoil in Iran, Burma, and many other countries.
It's also worth noting that US President Barack Obama's carefully crafted remarks last week on the situation in Egypt failed to specifically mention the denial of access to the internet. His address included the usual declaration — 'we stand for universal values, including the rights of the Egyptian people to freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and the freedom to access information'.
But it did not make reference to what is surely the most striking violation of those freedoms on this occasion: denial of internet access. It would have been reassuring to hear him link freedom of access to the internet with the other freedoms he mentions.
In the minds of some, the reason he's treading warily is that the US Government itself is preparing the ground for switching off internet access in a national emergency. The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act is being introduced by US Homeland Security committee chair Senator Joe Lieberman. It would grant the President powers to seize control of the internet, and shut it down if necessary.
Popularly known as the 'kill switch', it's intended for use in a situation of cyber warfare. But there are fears that it could be used just as easily to control the flow of information. What we've learned through WikiLeaks helps us to understand why the US Government may be interested in such a power.
Any form of control of the internet does not sit easily with remarks made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in January last year, when she accused countries that build barriers to parts of the internet or filter search engines of contravening the UN's Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Australia was implicitly in her firing line, with the setting up of our internet filter well advanced.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy — charged with setting up the filter — was therefore open to derision last week when he responded to questions about the internet shutdown in Egypt. He declared that 'Australia's a vibrant democracy, where the government doesn't control the internet'. He continued:
I don't think we