i9/11 by an iSaddam in iIran or iXinhua

There is unsurprisingly big public opposition to getting rid of net neutrality.

There is unsurprisingly a great sense of urgency among the telcoms to do just that. Nobody with any disposable income gets their worldview from the tube anymore. Everyone with a couple of neurons to slap together compares what several news and product information sources say before they buy anything, from cars, to politicians.

It is precisely that last product category- the tendency not to just buy what the Man is trying to sell you- that makes Big Brother a little uneasy about the free speech function of the internet.

Hence, this:

Lawrence Lessig, a respected Law Professor from Stanford University told an audience at this years Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Half Moon Bay, California, that "There’s going to be an i-9/11 event" which will act as a catalyst for a radical reworking of the law pertaining to the internet.

Lessig also revealed that he had learned, during a dinner with former government Counter Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke, that there is already in existence a cyber equivalent of the Patriot Act, an "i-Patriot Act" if you will, and that the Justice Department is waiting for a cyber terrorism event in order to implement its provisions.

During a group panel segment titled "2018: Life on the Net", Lessig stated:

There’s going to be an i-9/11 event. Which doesn't necessarily mean an Al Qaeda attack, it means an event where the instability or the insecurity of the internet becomes manifest during a malicious event which then inspires the government into a response. You've got to remember that after 9/11 the government drew up the Patriot Act within 20 days and it was passed.

The Patriot Act is huge and I remember someone asking a Justice Department official how did they write such a large statute so quickly, and of course the answer was that it has been sitting in the drawers of the Justice Department for the last 20 years waiting for the event where they would pull it out.

Of course, the Patriot Act is filled with all sorts of insanity about changing the way civil rights are protected, or not protected in this instance. So I was having dinner with Richard Clarke and I asked him if there is an equivalent, is there an i-Patriot Act just sitting waiting for some substantial event as an excuse to radically change the way the internet works. He said "of course there is".

Of course. If there is some catastrophic cyber shock to use as an excuse for this doctrine, just don't expect the Internet Channel solution to come anywhere close to solving the iProblem, whichever agency precipitates it.