Digital Censorship Quotes

Censorship is saying: 'I'm the one who says the last sentence. Whatever you say, the conclusion is mine.' But the internet is like a tree that is growing. The people will always have the last word - even if someone has a very weak, quiet voice. Such power will collapse because of a whisper.

The Internet treats censorship as a malfunction and routes around it.

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, warned Facebook of the need for consumer protection and an open Internet, and according to 'The Wall Street Journal,' Thune has sent a letter to Zuckerberg asking how the company chooses its trending topics and who is ultimately responsible.

Laws and mechanisms originally meant to enforce copyright, protect children and fight online crime are abused to silence or intimidate political critics.

Of course, authors can still burn their manuscripts - but once something is out in the world, especially if it ever saw the digital light of day, it's harder and harder to call it back.

Information on the Internet must be as free as in the newspapers.

It's hard to change information in books, but if we have everything online, then a somewhat untrustworthy group of people controlling the thing - which I think is what we have - gives us '1984.'

There's lot of social censorship now, especially in this era of ubiquitous social media.

The U.S. can use its control over the dollar and the global financial system to shut down any bank or bank account in the world. It can use its control over Apple and Google to remove apps from the App Store and Google Play.

The Internet offers the ability for people to consume poison and radicalize entirely in private, either through a device they're holding in their hands or inside their house.

Calling China's online censorship system a 'Great Firewall' is increasingly trendy, but misleading. All walls, being the creation of engineers, can be breached with the right tools.

To a poet, it's quite ruinous to have a poem distorted, out of shape, or squeezed, shall we say, into this tiny screen. But I'm not sure big digital companies are sensitive to the needs of poets.

While the Internet is censored in China, the censorship is allowing a level of speech to take place that's unprecedented.

We need a multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance, not vested interests in making citizens pay for formerly free services or restrictions to their capacity to share information.

The information superhighway should not look like a red light district.

Chinese national Internet policy is very simple: Block and clone.

Twitter does have an effect on everything - things you put out there, they are out there for good.

I was about to get in the shower; I took a nude selfie, kept it in my phone for over a year. I just liked the picture, so I was like,"Let me put censor bars on it and post it." I don't do things to be like, "This is powerful. I'm going to show you guys that this is my 'message.''' I'm not that type of person".

People are following me because they want to see pictures of me. So why is Instagram editing them?

The world's entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations.

We all agree on the core values of a free and open Internet. We simply may disagree on the appropriate regulatory framework for securing those values. And I would much rather have an open and honest debate about the appropriate regulatory framework as opposed to throwing misinformation out there to achieve political ends.

You have to assume once you go online, anything you put there can be made public. Yet while you're online, you feel like it's a private, sacred space. But you're really broadcasting to the world.

Journal paywalls are an example of something that works in the reverse direction, making communication less open and efficient.

Republicans want to keep the open Internet safe from big government. Democrats want to keep it safe from big corporations. I say we agree to agree and move ahead.

The Internet can empower groups whose aims are in fact antithetical to democracy.