A bill that would have given the govt control over the Internet will be scaled back

Apr 24, 2014 14:31 GMT  ·  By

The Mexican government tried to gain control over the Internet and what happened should make all the world’s netizens proud.

The draft law would have given the Mexican government the power to block the Internet, as well as other types of communications. Naturally fearing the fact that the authorities could abuse such power, hundreds of citizens took to the street to protest.

TorrentFreak reports that the Mexican officials seem to be retreating, thanks to the clear reaction from the country’s citizens.

The law was, of course, actually packaged quite nicely, but thankfully, people also saw what the government wasn’t willing to say – that they’d get total control over the Internet. According to initial statements, the bill wanted to combat illegal activities on the Internet, including child pornography.

The idea is an admirable one, but once the details of the law were put on paper, activists read between the lines and noticed just how much power the government could get and that it could eventually censor the Internet whenever it wanted to.

What bothered people was one article that stated that the government could force Internet Service Providers to “temporarily block, inhibit or annul telecommunications signals at events and places deemed critical for the public safety.”

This, of course, translates into the ability to cut off Internet access during street protests, eventual uprisings and any other time the government didn’t feel like allowing its citizens to communicate with others over the Internet.

Considering the role that the Internet and social media specifically have played in protests in the past few years, it’s clear what the Mexican government fears. Another example of abuse from a government happened just several weeks ago, when Internet access was cut off to Twitter, YouTube and several social media platforms ahead of the local elections from Turkey as compromising material proving the corruption within the country’s government was coming to light.

Regardless, the people of Mexico took to the streets in protest, before the bill could become dangerous. Even though the government insists that the measures are only going to be used to deal with serious crime, activists feel like things have already gone too far.

One senator announced that the proposals would be scaled back, as a result of the obvious displeasure among people.

“Any additional power, like the blocking of signals for national or public safety will be excluded from the reform,” said Emilion Gamboa, senator. He also added that measures meant to force ISPs to hand over subscriber information would be taken out of the bill.