Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump has an idea for stopping ISIS from communicating online. He wants to close the Internet.

"We're losing a lot of people because of the Internet," Trump said Monday at a campaign rally in South Carolina.

"We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some way."

Byers Market Newsletter Get breaking news and insider analysis on the rapidly changing world of media and technology right to your inbox. This site is protected by recaptcha

ISIS has been known for recruiting members online. After the Paris terror attacks, concerns over terrorists using encrypted software led messaging app Telegram to shut down ISIS-related channels.

Still, no other presidential candidate or intelligence official has advocated for "closing" the Internet -- and it's unclear what such an action would mean for a technology that underlies much of the modern economy.

Trump continued, "Somebody will say, 'Oh, freedom of speech, freedom of speech.' These are foolish people."

The comments came on the same day that Trump trashed Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Twitter. He called the Washington Post, which Bezos owns, a tax shelter for Amazon.

The @washingtonpost, which loses a fortune, is owned by @JeffBezos for purposes of keeping taxes down at his no profit company, @amazon. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015

The @washingtonpost loses money (a deduction) and gives owner @JeffBezos power to screw public on low taxation of @Amazon! Big tax shelter — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 7, 2015

Bezos, who joined Twitter last month, fired back by suggesting that his private space company launch Trump into space.