What story are you talking about? Were would a single individual be able to cut off internet for other people for money?

When the internet was first made public, it was in the period after the cold war, before the GWOT, and the US had no conflicts. The people who ran the internet largely took a very "hands off" approach. It wasn't politicized because there wasn't a need.

As far a physically cutting off internet? even cell phones? Starlink? I mean people cut power, and stop the plumbing occasionally all the time for nefarious reasons, it always gets turned back on sooner or later.

It wasn't until the early 2010s that it really started getting mainstream, and started becoming a new front for nation-state espionage and war. Two big points: one, this is more the norm for the US. Two, the internet is mainstream, so cannot kinda duck out by being some weird corner of society. It will be ruled as an extension of such.