{"id":161,"date":"2016-05-18T08:50:38","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T08:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161"},"modified":"2016-05-18T08:50:38","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T08:50:38","slug":"the-day-the-internet-dies-world-wide-web-internaut-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=161","title":{"rendered":"The Day the Internet Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span class=\"dropcap\">A<\/span>little after midnight on January 25, 2011, a large country disappeared off the cyber map. Egypt had cut itself off from the rest of the world. It had shut down the internet.\n\nProviders, businesses, banks, schools, embassies, and offices that relied on the big four Egyptian Internet Service Providers (ISPs), suddenly found themselves with no memes to LOL over, or government to take down.\n\nThe shutdown was ordered by former president Hosni Mubarak, who was attempting to stifle a massive revolution over his 30-year rule. Protesters had been calling him all kinds of names on the internet and he simply wasn\u2019t having any of that.\n\nPerhaps a slightly more moderate response would have been to just block hotbeds of dissent \u2013 such as Twitter, Facebook or YouTube \u2013 but Mubarak was a smart man. He knew savvy protesters would circumvent government censorship using proxy computers. So, he simply shut down the whole shebang.\n\nWhich is all very well, but how exactly does one go about shutting down the internet?\n\nWell, it comes down to the ISPs running in your country. It becomes really simple when there are only one or two companies who hold official licenses to carry internet traffic to and from the outside world. In Egypt, the whole thing was fairly regulated so the kill switch was a lot easier to throw.\n\nAt this point I bet you\u2019re wondering,\u00a0what about India? Because this story of a pissed-off leader with no sense of humour is hitting rather close to home.\n<\/p><blockquote class=\"quote--center\">At last count, approximately 350 million people in this age group suffer from legitimate internet addiction (yes, it\u2019s a thing), which means that if the internet was to suddenly shut down, they\u2019re all going to need internet rehab.<\/blockquote>\nIntelligence firm Renesys has the answer in the form of a global map that shows\u00a0us exactly how difficult it would be to achieve a blackout in your country. India has way too many ISPs which makes it really hard\u00a0to shut us down if a certain someone \u2013 let\u2019s just call him M \u2013 doesn\u2019t like our jokes. If he asks BSNL to kill services, Airtel and Vodafone would take over; then Idea, Matrix, etc. The line is satisfyingly long.\n\nBut &#8212; and there is a big but &#8212; if this imaginary M is adamant about shutting down the internet, he could. All he has to do is prep for it by arming himself with a \u201ckill-switch\u201d button. Imagine M in Mogambo get-up, waving one of those cheap Hindi movie remote controls threateningly in your faces.\n\nIt\u2019s funny until\u00a0you realise that it\u2019s not just a Hindi movie trope \u2013 this could actually happen. India is one of the very few countries in the world that\u2019s given the government the <a href=\"http:\/\/articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com\/2011-03-16\/news\/28698054_1_internet-users-sovereignty-and-integrity-switch\">right<\/a> to block the internet \u201cif necessary\u201d. These two vague and wholly manipulation-worthy words \u201cif necessary\u201d hold ransom our digital existence.\n\nInsert pause here.\n\nNow let\u2019s continue. Let\u2019s say M throws the switch in a fit of temper \u2013 and suddenly newspapers make a comeback and \u201ccats doing cute things\u201d sell out at Wembley.\n\nWhile Gen X and Gen Y may still survive, the millennials and founders may not. Imagine a 20-year-old politically charged youth looking for a post office to send out an open-letter rant to the government. Or a\u00a0frustrated 15-year-old scribbling about his day on the wall in his bedroom, while his sister trains passenger pigeons to send selfies to her friends? Imagine thousands of kids left with no Google to finish their homework, swarming libraries, marvelling at how many characters it took for previous generations to make a point.\n\nAt last count, approximately 350 million people in this age group suffer from legitimate <a href=\"http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2015\/07\/17\/opinions\/steiner-adair-internet-addiction\/\" target=\"_blank\">internet addiction<\/a> (yes, it\u2019s a thing), which means that if the internet was to suddenly shut down, they\u2019re all going to need internet rehab.\n\nRecently, Reddit (a congregation for these addicts) asked users what they thought would happen if the internet shut down.\n\nThe top comment, by user BinarySoup, was serious. He says it will affect food supply. \u201cIf the internet is down for a week it would be pretty devastating\u2026 there is no (other) way to monitor all the supplies, etc that are constantly on the move.\u201d (Dude, no other way? What do you think we ate before internet happened?)\n\nBut even if we don\u2019t take BinarySoup seriously, there\u2019s no shying away from the fact that businesses would indeed shut down. Stock markets would crash. Government and bank databases would be inaccessible.\n\nWhich is all quite chaotic and avoidable. And exactly what happened in Egypt.\n\nEgyptians were not too pleased with the no-internet development, naturally. So they fought back with all their might. The internet was a good thing, they yelled. For all the memes, selfies, and other good stuff \u2013 not at all to organise a coup, they yelled.\n\nAnd so the internet came back and went on to play the protagonist of one of biggest uprisings in modern history \u2013 the Arab Spring.\n\nWhich beats playing the dinosaur game on Chrome.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Twenty-five years after we got access to the internet, Indians need to watch their words on the web. We may find ourselves with no memes to LOL over. The Big M can pull the plug.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyber"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Day the Internet Dies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Twenty-five years after we got access to the internet, Indians need to watch their words on the web. We may find ourselves with no memes to LOL over. The Big M can pull the plug.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Day the Internet Dies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Twenty-five years after we got access to the internet, Indians need to watch their words on the web. We may find ourselves with no memes to LOL over. The Big M can pull the plug.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-18T08:50:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1456146347-1024x657.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"657\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"#VALUE!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Day the Internet Dies\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Twenty-five years after we got access to the internet, Indians need to watch their words on the web. We may find ourselves with no memes to LOL over. The Big M can pull the plug.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"#VALUE!\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=161#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=161\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"#VALUE!\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7e685cea646baa9279f67e2d4b7bb37c\"},\"headline\":\"The Day the Internet Dies\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-18T08:50:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=161\"},\"wordCount\":850,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=161#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1456146347.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Cyber\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=161\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=161\",\"name\":\"The Day the Internet Dies\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=161#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=161#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1456146347.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-18T08:50:38+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7e685cea646baa9279f67e2d4b7bb37c\"},\"description\":\"Twenty-five years after we got access to the internet, Indians need to watch their words on the web. We may find ourselves with no memes to LOL over. The Big M can pull the plug.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=161#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=161\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=161#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1456146347.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1456146347.jpg\",\"width\":2531,\"height\":1625},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=161#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Day the Internet Dies\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arr\u00e9\",\"description\":\"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7e685cea646baa9279f67e2d4b7bb37c\",\"name\":\"#VALUE!\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c9ba8474a6d4796f645d71e41377030d633f9c08c1603b607bd1309fbbd68481?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c9ba8474a6d4796f645d71e41377030d633f9c08c1603b607bd1309fbbd68481?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/c9ba8474a6d4796f645d71e41377030d633f9c08c1603b607bd1309fbbd68481?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"#VALUE!\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.arre.co.in\\\/?author=9\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Day the Internet Dies","description":"Twenty-five years after we got access to the internet, Indians need to watch their words on the web. We may find ourselves with no memes to LOL over. The Big M can pull the plug.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Day the Internet Dies","og_description":"Twenty-five years after we got access to the internet, Indians need to watch their words on the web. We may find ourselves with no memes to LOL over. The Big M can pull the plug.","og_url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161","og_site_name":"Arr\u00e9","article_published_time":"2016-05-18T08:50:38+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":657,"url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1456146347-1024x657.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"#VALUE!","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"The Day the Internet Dies","twitter_description":"Twenty-five years after we got access to the internet, Indians need to watch their words on the web. We may find ourselves with no memes to LOL over. The Big M can pull the plug.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"#VALUE!","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161"},"author":{"name":"#VALUE!","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/7e685cea646baa9279f67e2d4b7bb37c"},"headline":"The Day the Internet Dies","datePublished":"2016-05-18T08:50:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161"},"wordCount":850,"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1456146347.jpg","articleSection":["Cyber"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161","name":"The Day the Internet Dies","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1456146347.jpg","datePublished":"2016-05-18T08:50:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/7e685cea646baa9279f67e2d4b7bb37c"},"description":"Twenty-five years after we got access to the internet, Indians need to watch their words on the web. We may find ourselves with no memes to LOL over. The Big M can pull the plug.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1456146347.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1456146347.jpg","width":2531,"height":1625},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=161#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Day the Internet Dies"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#website","url":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/","name":"Arr\u00e9","description":"In every person lies a creator and in every creator, an enterprise.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/#\/schema\/person\/7e685cea646baa9279f67e2d4b7bb37c","name":"#VALUE!","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9ba8474a6d4796f645d71e41377030d633f9c08c1603b607bd1309fbbd68481?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9ba8474a6d4796f645d71e41377030d633f9c08c1603b607bd1309fbbd68481?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c9ba8474a6d4796f645d71e41377030d633f9c08c1603b607bd1309fbbd68481?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"#VALUE!"},"url":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?author=9"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1456146347.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}