[sp_nster]

What's going on here in Myanmar should be a lesson to all people.

Here is the US, I'd like to see a lobby to have Communications Act amended to remove any power of the government or business to shut down communications networks, systems or inter-connections.

This idea that governments can protect us from ourselves is foolish.

[karatinversion]

No.

The Myanmar military’s coup, and the killing of hundreds of protesters, were already illegal.

If the US joint chiefs of staff arrested the president and congress, the CEO of T-mobile would not refuse to switch off mobile networks if half a dozen marines with loaded ARs showed up at his house with an order to do so.

[wnevets]

Absolutely. However it still would be nice if it US Government didn't have the legal authority to do so. There is a difference between an internet kill switch controlled and required by the government ala russia and marines storming T-Mobile's HQ. Not to mention the optics matter, even to dictators.

[lostlogin]

> the CEO of T-mobile would not refuse to switch off mobile networks if half a dozen marines with loaded ARs showed up at his house with an order to do so.

If people with guns threatened me and the way out was to turn off a network, I think I’d do as they ‘asked’.

[throwaway0a5e]

If I was worried about it I would build a process that didn't have a single point of failure like that.

[maxerickson]

It's not like a law is going to stop a malicious government from literally cutting a connection.

Do you really mean to propose that network operators not be able to disconnect from people that don't pay or are disruptive to their operations? I feel like you need to be a little more clear about what responsibilities you think private entities have.

[drak0n1c]

Governments at a certain point aren't trying to protect us from ourselves. They're trying to protect themselves from us.

[falcor84]

'People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.'

[jfengel]

Myanmar has a government that's afraid of its people. It's not working out so great.

What seems to work best is when the government and the people like each other, and nobody's afraid. That doesn't mean that they have to agree, but it does mean that they disagree politely, and seek to resolve disagreements with compromises that everybody can live with.

That requires a certain amount of trust and good faith. Once there's widespread fear, it's not going to end well for anybody.

[LordDragonfang]

I think the people of Myanmar are more afraid of the government than the government is of them. That's kind of the important part of that idiom there.

[jdavis703]

There are several sibling posts saying we don’t have to worry about the US government cutting communications. That’s just not true. A major US transit agency halted cell service to disrupt protests: https://www.aclunc.org/blog/five-years-later-barts-cell-serv....

[marshmallow_12]

but again, if it gets as bad as in Myanmar, a)laws wont help b) we will have bigger problems.

Is shutting down internet a small step towards a coup, as opposed to being the fruit of one? In the case of the US, i don't think it's likely short or medium term.

What about police abusing this power? That's a local government problem, not a national one, so it's different to what's going on in myanmar.

[JumpCrisscross]

> if it gets as bad as in Myanmar, a)laws wont help b) we will have bigger problems

It gets as bad as it has in Myanmar when one doesn't have those laws. If you ban cutting communications, it normalizes the expectation. Cutting communications now becomes personally and politically risky in a way it isn't if it's in the grey area.

For an example, see India's slow slide into authoritarianism in this respect. Cutting communications in Kashmir was legal, but iffy. That normalized, legally and culturally, the mechanism. Now, communications are routinely cut across the country.

All that said, Myanmar fell to a military coup. That's a different failure mechanism from elected leaders getting too comfortable on their thrones.

[baybal2]

We have a member called 2GKasmiri, would be appropriate to hear him here.

[selimthegrim]

They cut communications regularly across the country well before 2019

[vkou]

> What's going on here in Myanmar should be a lesson to all people.

Yes. The lesson is that when your country is taken over by a military coup, and guys with assault rifles come to shut down the internet, pre-existing laws and rhetoric about free speech and open access and all that other good stuff become completely irrelevant.

You are looking at a wet street, and are claiming that it caused rain.

If you actually want to prevent this from happening here, the step that you should worry about is the coup and the killings, not the internet getting shut down in the following week.

[adrr]

How is that a lesson? Its coup, and the military has ignored the rule of law and seized control.

[refurb]

What good a is law when there are people with guns ready to shoot you down?

[salawat]

It bolsters other people with guns to shoot the first bunch down because they've clearly lost their bloody minds.

Goes both ways.

[vsareto]

They're never going to shut it down in the US. Too many people posted incriminating stuff during Jan. 6th. It's way too useful to turn it off.