10 replies to this topic

[LegacyUpdater]

The American government is establishing an underground Internet and mobile phone service to keep free speech alive and kicking worldwide.

View the full article

[Deft]

That's actually very surprising news. I wonder what happened to Obama's plan to appoint an "Internet Tzar".

[Lonniehaskel]

Yeah, this just made me tilt my head in surprise and confusion.

[KillyKyll]

Wow. To be honest, I find this hard to believe. It actually sounds like our government is going to do something good....for the better of the world. There must be some hidden agenda, right? Even so, I hope it actually happens, because no direct harm can come to people because they have internet.

[TheAntZ]

oh LegacyUpdater, you so funny

[Sachem]

Hidden agenda would be causing chaos in "enemy" nations, looking at where they say it would be deployed, in "Iran, Syria and Libya". I read a BBC article(can't find it, still looking though.) that also claimed China as a possible place of deployment, although that was from a third party, not from the US government obviously.

It's not so much free Internet for the sake of free Internet, it's free Internet for the sake of sabotaging nations they see as dangerous.

[chuiu]

Huh, at first I understood this to mean they are removing the rights of certain ISP's to censor stuff. Now it makes a little more sense, especially if connecting wirelessly means connecting to the world wide internet via satellite. Our governments satellites. Satellites that can be monitored... Maybe it isn't as generous as it first seems. Hopefully it is though.

[Deft]

Of course there's a motive behind it. If you believe the government would do anything purely for "the greater good", then you're extremely naive. If their motive is to overthrow tyrannous governments, then I can respect that, but still be wary.

[okuRaku]

First thing I thought of was TOR/Bitcoin but then I realized it's talking about the actual hardware as well.. pretty impressive if it comes to fruition! I imagine that tech would come in handy in some doomsday scenarios as well.

[teraldent]

I'm sure that the us government and many others would have access to this, maybe............. ITS A TRAP

[Orz]

Wow, such cynicism galore just because the government is involved. The line is getting close - no politics (yes debating governmental affairs is politics) please. Keep on point.

I will say that if the New York times is reporting it, it isn't very secret, is it?

The original article states (poor job LegacyUpdater, go directly to the source) what the real intent of the networks is, and what purpose they serve. Does it have strategic and tactical military value? Absolutely. But so do everyday things that are used in the civilian world that originally came about from a military purpose (you know, that GPS thing).