Why the internet ban is doomed to failure

Today's Hamodia (6/13), had an interesting article regarding the problems that Charedi Jews are having with the US Embassy in Israel.

Until now, the embassy has had public hours where anyone could come and get passports, register births, etc. Last week, they started a new system. You now need an appointment to do anything. No one will be served without an appointment. There is just 1 catch. The appointment system is online only, if you don't have internet access there is no way for you to make an appointment. Hamodia, asked the US Embassy if they were planning on allowing for people to set up appointments by phone. The answer they received (appropriately enough by e-mail), was no, there is no plan to allow appointment set up by phone. The one and only way to setup an appointment with the US Embassy in Israel is online using the internet. This is a big problem for the Charedi public in Israel where the internet is banned.

This is not an isolated incident. More and more services are moving online and online only. In some cases you may be able to pay to get phone service but even that is going to go away. As the internet becomes even more ubiquitous it is going to be very difficult to get along in day to day life without it. This is why the internet ban is doomed to failure.