A very worrying graph, and a V for Vendetta inspired response.

First it was Facebook. Then it was Twitter. Now, in the face of massive protests in the streets of Cairo and throughout the country, Egypt has pulled the plug on the entire Internet for its citizens. As that chart from Arbor networks shows, Internet traffic mounted steadily in Egypt steadily over several days, then suddenly and collapsed.

The U.S. has condemned the move; ironically via Twitter.

But is such a flagrant violation of communications only possible only in the less free corners of the world? Last summer, Senator Joe Lieberman introduced a bill in Congress which would give the US an Internet “kill switch” of its own*. “For all of its ‘user-friendly’ allure, the Internet can also be a dangerous place with electronic pipelines that run directly into everything from our personal bank accounts to key infrastructure to government and industrial secrets,” Lieberman said in June.

As recently as three days ago, CNET reported on a “renewed push” to implement the bill. The first version of the bill raised plenty of red flags but the latest version is even harsher – it bans judicial review over executive decrees. “The country we’re seeking to protect is a country that respects the right of any individual to have their day in court,” Steve DelBianco of the NetChoice coalition told CNET. “Yet this bill would deny that day in court to the owner of infrastructure.“

The stated purpose of the bill is not, of course, to allow the president to undermine the freedom of speech, or to limit the ability of people to protest. The bill (which doesn’t use the term “kill switch” itself) talks a lot about cybersecurity, and allows the president to declare a state of national cyberemergency.

But since when did any new power taken by Government ever stay limited to the use which they claimed it for? And where the US goes, how long before the UK follows?

* Full text of the bill, “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset,” can be found here.