Kill Switch | featured news

AN unfettered internet, free of political control and available to everyone could be relegated to cyber-history under a contentious proposal by a little known United Nations body. Experts claim that Australians could see political and religious websites disappear if the Federal Government backs a plan to hand control over the internet to the UN's International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

The answer isn't entirely clear. The Egyptian government’s recent cutting of all Internet traffic in and out of the country in response to ongoing protests calling for the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak has garnered a great deal of international attention and condemnation. One result has been a renewed debate in the United States about the possibility of creating a so-called Internet “kill switch.”