A serious question: how could we effectively oppose ANY corrupt or oppressive government

[Atticus]

if they simply shut down the internet?

If the answer is "We couldn't", how can we change that?

[xchrom]

1. Precedent is behind you.

All the people who made dissent possible in the modern
Context made it possible before.

[grasswire]

4. but people could move more freely in earlier times

The surveillance society will hamper dissenters.

[bemildred]

2. Shutting down the internet would have real serious consequences.

You would be shutting down a lot more than the internet.

[doc03]

3. Well we would just have to use our 2nd

Amendment remedies I guess.:hide:

[Sinistrous]

5. Samizdat.

[Ozymanithrax]

6. People opposed corrupt and oppressive governments long before...

the INTERNET, or even electricity.

Look at Gandhi, who won using non-violence. Look at Martin Luther King and his struggle for equal rights. The centuries long strugle to free Ireland. Look at the American Revolution.

[Hannah Bell]

7. why is the internet such a great way to organize people? it's government spying central.

[Fumesucker]

9. Governments have had the mechanisms for rigid control for a long time now..

The Stasi had spying down to an art form..

[Fumesucker]

8. At this point shutting down the internet would paralyze the economy..

I don't think it could be sustained very long without consequences that would be far worse than most of us can even envision.

Food riots within a week wouldn't surprise me at all, distribution is internet driven to a fare thee well these days and food just won't get to the stores without it.

[Zanzobar]

10. The same could be asked about terrorist groups.

And it is a question business, banks, and governments themselves have been asking.

Everyone is paranoid, not just you.

[NoPasaran]

11. An interesting essay from the New Yorker

On why social media doesn't necessarily lead to the sort of mobilization needed to bring about real change.

Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted

Worth a read.

[blindpig]

12. Like this:

and this: