Egypt's internet shutdown is just the tip of the iceberg and a global net crackdown is inevitable, leading internet experts say.

Already the US has moved to implement an internet "kill switch", which would allow the President in a "cyber emergency" to shut down certain parts of the internet it considers "critical infrastructure", whilst the Australian government has previously sought to crackdown on the internet by censoring "refused classification" material.

Speaking to this website, Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School and author of The Master Switch, said the days of a utopian internet were numbered.

He said Egypt had proven how it was possible to shut out its citizens from the net and that we should expect other governments to begin clamping down on it.