What people generally say is that the net was designed to be robust against things like a nuclear strike taking out some part of the network.
That is very different from saying that it can't be turned off, by a government with the power to legally compel infrastructure operators to do things.
I'd say that the US government, if it wanted to, could turn off the Internet, for most of its citizens, over the course of a few days.
What would stop this happening is the legal framework, and the business and societal infrastructure that depends on the Internet functioning; but not some technological property of the Internet.
Theres this meme out there that the Internet cant be turned off, because its designed in a 'decentralised' manner, and its just not true, in pragmatic terms.
That is very different from saying that it can't be turned off, by a government with the power to legally compel infrastructure operators to do things.
I'd say that the US government, if it wanted to, could turn off the Internet, for most of its citizens, over the course of a few days.
What would stop this happening is the legal framework, and the business and societal infrastructure that depends on the Internet functioning; but not some technological property of the Internet.
The ability to knock domains out, at the DNS level, was demonstrated not too long ago - e.g. http://torrentfreak.com/feds-seize-pokerstars-full-tilt-poke...
Theres this meme out there that the Internet cant be turned off, because its designed in a 'decentralised' manner, and its just not true, in pragmatic terms.