Trump doubles down on ‘closing’ the Internet

by David McCabe - 12/15/15 9:55 PM ET

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump doubled down Tuesday night on his comments that he would support “closing that Internet up in some way.”

“I would certainly be open to closing areas where we are at war with somebody,” he said at the GOP primary debate when asked specifically if he supported closing or shutting down access to parts of the Internet. “I sure as hell don’t want to let people who want to kill us and kill our nation use our Internet. Yes sir, I am.”

{mosads}As in the past, he did not say how he would limit access to the Internet for members of groups like the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). He would say only that he would turn to experts at private sector tech companies to address the issue.

“ISIS is recruiting through the Internet,” Trump continued. “What I wanted to do is get our brilliant people from Silicon Valley and other places and figure out a way that ISIS cannot do what they’re doing.”

He made his initial comments at an event last week.

His remarks come as leaders in Washington and around the world debate the way that ISIS activity on the Internet should be policed. Some argue that companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter, which run platforms sometimes used by extremists, should be doing more to fight extremist activity on their networks.

The renewed Internet wrangle is occurring in light of the shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., where one of the alleged shooters is said to have posted pro-ISIS content to an alias Facebook account. The shooter’s account was discovered and reported by Facebook itself, according to the company.

Tags Donald Trump