To all the presidential candidates:

Locking down the Internet is not the way forward for the United States. We need to confront terrorism, but you can't shut down one part of the Internet without harming the rest of it. As an Internet voter, I won't tolerate restrictions on our rights to connect and communicate.

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    Tell Donald Trump and all the presidential contenders that shutting down the Internet is not the answer

    Every day something hateful comes out of Donald Trump's mouth.

    He wants to keep Muslims from entering the country. He wants to throw out immigrants. He cheers as angry crowds assault protesters. As The New York Times noted, his language is "more typically associated with racist hate groups."1

    Now you can add the free and open Internet to Trump's list of targets. After the recent terrorist attack in San Bernardino, he said we should "close the Internet up in some way."2 Locking down the Internet is not the way forward for the United States. The open Internet is one of the most effective ways to combat hate speech and give communities a voice.

    Trump isn't the only one talking about limiting our rights to connect and communicate. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has spoken of shutting "off the means of communication" for terrorist groups and has dismissed concerns over how that would impact freedom of speech for everything else online.3 We need to confront terrorism, but you can't shut down one part of the Internet without harming the rest of it.

    Tell Trump and all the other presidential contenders that shutting down the Internet is not the answer. We won't tolerate restrictions on our rights to connect and communicate.

    Original image by Flickr user Gage Skidmore