73,000 Blogs Ripped from the Internet

Last week Blogetry.com "voluntarily" shut down 73,000 blogs in response to an FBI investigation. (Click on the title for one version of the story.) The linked article reports it was done because according to the FBI tens of thousands of users shared extremist, al-Qaeda sponsored hit-lists and instructions on bomb making.

Before the FBI story emerged, the most common speculation about the reason for the shutdown credited a Federal crackdown on music and video piracy.

Several weeks ago (6/24/2010) I wrote a blog about the Internet being Dangerous for Small People and federal officials' interest in bestowing control of access to it to a tiny handful of communications giants like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast.

Several weeks before that Senator Joseph Lieberman suggested that the President needed the authority and means to "turn the Internet off" if the government believed this was necessary in the face of a terrorist threat. The alternative of fortifying this valuable resource against a cyber attack was not mentioned.

The Chinese have restricted Internet access from the get-go. Are they our model?

A cyber-terrorism attack that sabotages our banking, manufacturing, utility and defense grids is a real threat to our national security. To date, our federal government has done little to guard against it. There have been absolutely no indications that the massive blog shut-down had anything to do with that type of threat.

The widespread dissemination of personal information is another Internet threat, resulting in great part from security breaches of government and corporate databases. This serious hazard to individual welfare also goes largely unchallenged by the government. Instead we get constant, meaningless "Privacy Policy" statements from those who possess our most sensitive information.

But the government appears to be very concerned about the threat the Internet poses as a vehicle of free speech. The wild and woolly exchange of information in cyberspace is mind boggling. Its availability as a platform for expression of opinion, ideas, knowledge, experience and creativity is the last best challenge to the institutions that control our media, environment, lives, livelihoods and property. I am more than willing to share the space with those with whom I vehemently disagree in return for the right to express my own viewpoint. Besides, there is always the possibility I might learn something.

Controls can be put in place to prevent terrorist exploitation of this resource. But are there any controls to protect us from those who would muffle free speech?

In the meantime, it is probably a good idea to back up your blogs. I am.