In the article, "Are governments closing the net around web freedom?" journalist Alex Hudson expresses the relevance of the internet in response to the uprising in Egypt. "Cutting off nearly all internet traffic for five days created a backlash, not only from the people of Egypt but from the usually apolitical companies Google and Twitter." says Hudson. Al Gore speaks on the issue of web freedom. "Defend the internet. Do not let it be controlled by governments or by large corporations. It is a network of people." Hudson suggests that there are still signs that the web is becoming dominated by these few large corporations. Inevitably, government agencies will be active online participants in order to enforce laws relating to public life. Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the world-wide web, is concerned that the involvement of government agencies and corporate officials in the interaction between persons on the internet is endangering basic human rights.
Hudson reveals that the internet is gradually changing with the introduction of “apps.” While simpler to use, apps are more easily monitored by the creator. Egypt is not the only country that has censored the internet. A large portion of the Americas and Europe has, in place, some sort of suppression, as disclosed by the think-tank “Reporters Without Borders.” According to Hudson, the United States Government has considered implicating an “internet kill-switch” to use in an absolute emergency and to cause the least amount of disturbance. Officially, the “internet kill-switch” is known as the “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act” and would give the president the endowment to shut down areas of the internet at his own consciousness. Hudson presumes, by proof of recent examples, that discontinuing parts of the web is one of the first methods governments will use to “stifle protest.”
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