Web Inventor will SWITCH OFF the internet!

[Asmodeus]

Delicious English sarcasm.

The inventor of the world wide web has denied there is an "off-switch" which could turn off the internet across the globe.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who launched the web on Christmas Day 1990, said the only way the internet could ever be entirely shut down is if governments all over the world co-ordinated to make it a centralised system.

It comes after moves by the Egyptian government last year to suppress use of the web led to speculation that the Hosni Mubarak regime had found a kill switch for the internet.

Speaking at the launch of the first ever global league table classifying countries which put the web to work best, the 57-year-old computer scientist said: "The way the internet is designed is very much as a decentralised system. At the moment, because countries connect to each other in lots of different ways, there is no one off-switch, there is no central place where you can turn it off.

"In order to be able to turn the whole thing off or really block, suppress one particular idea then the countries and governments would have to get together and agree and co-ordinate and turn it from a decentralised system to being a centralised system. And if that does happen it is really important that everybody fights against that sort of direction."

Asked about rumours that he himself was one of a handful of people who had the ability to switch off the net, Sir Tim joked:

"I am afraid that now that you know I will have to shoot you. I have put on filters which allow me to investigate every single word that any of you have said to each other. You won't know what is happening but as you talk to each other it will be quietly modified to appear to be whatever I want you to be saying. I will take a deep control of the world. Apart from that, everything will remain as usual."

 

[MurderDeathKill]

How about a switch that turns off only certain parts of the web, like everything having to do with [insert whatever you hate here]? ._.

 

[Villamvihar]

I literally have no words. I mean how... What is this I do not even know. Was this question seriously asked? I mean, I know that people can be stupid, but why was there a need to confirm that the internet has no off-switch? I am just going to retreat into my corner and mourn the death of logic.

 

[Zen]

Lawl.

 

[Asmodeus]

Illuminati kill switch. It's all part of their plan.

 

[Kitti]

I knew that deep down, Asmo has a heart of gold. Clearly everything he types is DESU DESU KAWAII and this other angry British man is just lurking quietly, changing his words to British snark. They're oppressing Asmo!

 

[unanun]

It's actually somewhat possible, see how Egypt shut down their internet during the uprisings.

I'm not remotely close to a network engineer, but the basic idea is that when you send a request on your computer to another computer, it goes through a series of routers that forward the request to other ones, etc. At the very top are two kinds of services: DNS / IP routers, the first which translates www.google.com to an IP, and the second one that somehow knows where to send your request to the right set of wires to the other computer.

In the US there is a company called ICANN that controls these servers. It is technically possible for the US to completely isolate its citizens from the internet by closing off access from this top-level point, and also cripple internal traffic.










But I think I didn't get the joke.

 

[Torsty]

So I was the only one thinking 'That last quote sounds like some SNARK SNARK Asmo himself could've said!' as I read it?



I don't believe that.

 

[Hecatoncheires]

Today we learned that Asmo was actually Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

 

[Asmodeus]

*deactivates Grumpy*