Donald Trump Says He'll Close Down "Areas" of the Internet to Fight ISIS in CNN GOP Debate

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump declared during the fifth GOP primary debate Tuesday night that the fight against the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, may require shutting down parts of the internet.

CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer noted that Trump floated the idea earlier this month, when he told supporters in South Carolina that officials ought to speak with technology industry leaders to discuss "closing up that internet in some way" to prevent the dissemination of militant ideas.

"ISIS is recruiting through the internet. ISIS is using the internet better than we are using the internet and it was our idea," Trump responded. "What I wanted to do is I wanted to get our brilliant people from Silicon Valley and other places and figure out a way that ISIS cannot do what they're doing."

Trump argued that the fight against ISIS required setting aside traditional civil liberties objections. 

"You talked freedom of speech. You talked freedom of anything you want," he continued. "I don't want them using our internet to take our young impressionable youth and watching the media talking about how they're masterminds. these are masterminds. They shouldn't be using the word mastermind. These are thugs and terrible people in ISIS, not masterminds."

You can watch Trump's answer below: