Maine senator supports bill to hand president control of the Internet in emergencies
Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, introduced a Senate bill last week that would give the president authority to shut down or control parts of the Internet in the case of a national emergency.
Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins co-sponsored the bill and, was quoted by CNET as saying, “We cannot afford to wait for a cyber 9/11 before our government realizes the importance of protecting our cyber resources.”
The Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act dictates that Internet companies such as broadband providers and search engines “shall immediately comply with any emergency measure or action developed” by the Department of Homeland Security.
The full bill is available on Scribd:
Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act
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About the editor
William P. Davis is editor of MediaME, the Observer’s tech and journalism blog, and chief Web guru for maineobserver.net. He also serves as online editor for the Bangor Daily News, and was the 2009-2010 editor in chief of The Maine Campus, the semiweekly newspaper at the University of Maine. He can be reached on Twitter @williampd and by e-mail at will@maineobserver.net.