Rebecca MacKinnon Quotes & Sayings

Anything illegal under Chinese law is, of course, not protected by copyright. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Facebook has a rule that you're not supposed to be anonymous. — Rebecca MacKinnon

It is not inevitable that the Internet will evolve in a manner compatible with democracy. — Rebecca MacKinnon

There's a lot of politics over who gets the next allocation of Congressional funding. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Defending a free and open global Internet requires a broad-based global movement with the stamina to engage in endless - and often highly technical - national and international policy battles. — Rebecca MacKinnon

It's harder and harder for journalists to get out in the field and interview Iraqis. The Web can get these voices out easily and cheaply. — Rebecca MacKinnon

I first came to China as a child on a visit with my family in 1978. — Rebecca MacKinnon

It's much easier to force intermediary communications and Internet companies such as Google to police themselves and their users than the alternatives: sending cops after everybody who attempts a risque or politically sensitive search, getting parents and teachers to do their jobs, or chasing down the origin of every offending link. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Companies have choices to make about what extent they're handling their users' content. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Negative views of Pakistan expressed by prominent members of the global business community are taken more seriously by government functionaries than are appeals by human rights groups. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Citizens continue to demand government help in fighting cybercrime, defending children from stalkers and bullies, and protecting consumers. — Rebecca MacKinnon

It's a tough problem that a company faces once they branch out beyond one set of offices in California into that big bad world out there. — Rebecca MacKinnon

For centuries, the Yangtze River - the longest in Asia - has played an important role in China's history, culture, and economy. The Yangtze is as quintessentially Chinese as the Nile is Egyptian or the Rhine is German. Many businesses use its name. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Can companies just claim a total lack of political responsibility in how their technology is used in all instances? It's something that companies should be thinking about when they sell their technologies around the world. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Would the Protestant Reformation have happened without the printing press? Would the American Revolution have happened without pamphlets? Probably not. But neither printing presses nor pamphlets were the heroes of reform and revolution. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The Tunisian blogger and activist Sami Ben Gharbia has written passionately about how U.S. government involvement in grassroots digital spaces can endanger those who are already vulnerable to accusations by nasty regimes of acting as foreign agents. — Rebecca MacKinnon

There isn't much question that the person who obtained the WikiLeaks cables from a classified U.S. government network broke U.S. law and should expect to face the consequences. The legal rights of a website that publishes material acquired from that person, however, are much more controversial. — Rebecca MacKinnon

For years, members of Congress have heard from constituents who want them to protect the nation from crime, terrorism and intellectual property violation. They have not faced equally robust demands that online rights and freedoms be preserved. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Nobody is forcing anybody who is uncomfortable with the terms of service to use Facebook. Executives point out that Internet users have choices on the Web. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The better-informed we are, the more we can do to make sure what's happening is in our interests and is accountable to us. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Each of us has a vital role to play in building a world in which the government and technology serve the world's people and not the other way around. — Rebecca MacKinnon

'Intermediary liability' means that the intermediary, a service that acts as 'intermediate' conduit for the transmission or publication of information, is held liable or legally responsible for everything its users do. — Rebecca MacKinnon

While sanctions against Iran and Syria are intended to constrain those countries' governments, they have had the unfortunate side effect of constraining activists' access to free online software and services used widely across the Middle East, including browsers, online chat applications, and online storage services. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Over the past several decades, a growing number of investors have been choosing to put their money in funds that screen companies for their environmental and labor records. Some socially responsible investors are starting to add free expression and privacy to their list of criteria. — Rebecca MacKinnon

There's a real contradiction that's difficult to explain to the West and the outside world about China and about the Internet. — Rebecca MacKinnon

When U.S. commercial interests press the Chinese government to do a better job of policing Chinese websites for pirated content, a blind eye is generally turned to the fact that ensuing crackdowns provide a great excuse to tighten mechanisms to censor all content the Chinese government doesn't like. — Rebecca MacKinnon

There are many cases of activists having their Facebook pages and accounts deactivated at critical times, when they are right in the middle of a campaign or organising a demonstration. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Increasingly, corporate executives who don't speak Japanese are coming into Japan. Unlike their predecessors, they expect their employees to be able to communicate in English. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Digital activism did not spring immaculately out of Twitter and Facebook. It's been going on ever since blogs existed. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Without global human rights, labor and environmental movements, companies would still be hiring 12-year-olds as a matter of course and poisoning our groundwater without batting an eyelid. — Rebecca MacKinnon

While the Internet can't be controlled 100 percent, it's possible for governments to filter content and discourage people from organizing. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Taiwan politics certainly is colorful. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Clear limits should be set on how power is exercised in cyberspace by companies as well as governments through the democratic political process and enforced through law. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The Chinese government clearly sees Internet and mobile innovation as a major driver of its global economic competitiveness going forward. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Most people who use the Internet seem take its nature and characteristics for granted, like we take air and water for granted. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Tactically, yelling at Google is unwise. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Like Syria, the government of Bahrain employs aggressive tactics to censor and monitor its people's online activity. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Freedom only remains healthy if we think about the implications of what we do on a day-to-day basis. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Public trust in both government and corporations is low, and deservedly so. — Rebecca MacKinnon

It took a generation for companies to recognise their responsibilities in terms of labour practices and another generation for them to recognise their environmental obligations. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The U.S. relationship with Bahrain is obviously more complicated than with Syria and Iran. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Yahoo! had a choice. It chose to provide an e-mail service hosted on servers based inside China, making itself subject to Chinese legal jurisdiction. It didn't have to do that. It could have provided a service hosted offshore only. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The way I think liberties get eroded is not that all of a sudden you become an Orwellian state, but gradually it becomes harder for people with unpopular views to speak out without being in danger, be it from the state or just from the majority of the people who don't like them. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Google attempted to run a search engine in China, and they ended up giving up. — Rebecca MacKinnon

So long as confusion reigns, there will be no successful global Internet agenda, only contradiction. — Rebecca MacKinnon

As in Pakistan, Tunisian and Egyptian human rights activists are concerned that any censorship mechanisms, once put in place, will inevitably be abused for political purposes no matter what censorship proponents claim to the contrary. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The early idealists and companies and governments have all assumed that the Internet will bring freedom. Yet China proves that this is not the case. — Rebecca MacKinnon

One-way monologues through the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia don't have much street cred with China's Internet generation, to be honest. — Rebecca MacKinnon

In China, the problem is that with the system of censorship that's now in place, the user doesn't know to what extent, why, and under what authority there's been censorship. There's no way of appealing. There's no due process. — Rebecca MacKinnon

I study how governments seek to stifle and control online dissent. — Rebecca MacKinnon

On March 5, 2011, protesters stormed the Egyptian state security headquarters. In real time, activists shared their discoveries on Twitter as they moved through a building that had until recently been one of the Mubarak regime's largest torture facilities. — Rebecca MacKinnon

I don't think there's any serious discussion inside the Chinese government about liberalising. I don't think anything's going to change in China until enough Chinese say, 'We're not going to play this game any more.' — Rebecca MacKinnon

Ronald Reagan, when he was campaigning for President, said that he would break relations with Communist China and re-establish diplomatic relations with Taiwan. But when he got into office, he pursued a very different policy of engagement with China and of increasing trade and business ties with China. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Trade shows such as the wire tappers' ball are highly secretive and ban journalists from attending. None of the U.S. agencies that attended the wire tappers' ball - including the FBI, the Secret Service, and every branch of the military - were willing to comment when a reporter queried them about their attendance. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Internet freedom is not possible without freedom from fear, and users will not be free from fear unless they are sufficiently protected from online theft and attack. — Rebecca MacKinnon

I don't think any foreign Internet company can effectively compete against Chinese companies in the Chinese market. The regulatory environment is so difficult that it's almost impossible for foreigners to have an advantage over locals who have better political connections and who can manipulate the regulatory system much more effectively. — Rebecca MacKinnon

While the federal government is required by law to document publicly its wiretapping of phone lines, it is not required to do so with Internet communications. — Rebecca MacKinnon

In China, Vietnam, Russia and several former Soviet states, the dominant social networks are run by local companies whose relationship with the government actually constrains the empowering potential of social networks. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The user in China wants the same thing that any Internet user wants - privacy in conversations, maximum access to information, and the ability to speak their minds online. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The basic technical protocols that have enabled the Internet to work in such a globally interconnected way are developed and shared openly by a community of engineers. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The Chinese government sometimes shuts down the Internet and mobile services in specific areas where unrest occurs. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter should be urged to adhere to business practices that maximize the safety of activists using their platforms. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Governments clash with each other over who should control the co-ordination of the Internet's infrastructure and critical resources. — Rebecca MacKinnon

We're going to get the Internet we deserve, and those people who are the most active in shaping the Internet to their liking are going to win out. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Increasingly, people have very little tolerance for anything that smacks of propaganda. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Activists from the Middle East to Asia to the former Soviet states have all been telling me that they suffer from increasingly sophisticated cyber-attacks. — Rebecca MacKinnon

As a condition for entry into the Chinese market, Apple had to agree to the Chinese government's censorship criteria in vetting the content of all iPhone apps available for download on devices sold in mainland China. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Microsoft runs the world's biggest blogging platform, MSN Spaces. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The Patriot Act, passed overwhelmingly but hastily after 9/11, allows the FBI to obtain telecommunication, financial, and credit records without a court order. — Rebecca MacKinnon

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

Clearly Google is searching for a way to do business in China that avoids them sending someone to jail over an e-mail. — Rebecca MacKinnon

A lot of Chinese don't understand why people in the West are critical of China. — Rebecca MacKinnon

In January 2012, Google Plus started to roll out support for nicknames and pseudonyms, but those registering with a name other than their real-life one must be able to prove that they have been using that alternative name elsewhere, either on the Web or in real life. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Whether or not the U.S. government funds circumvention tools, or who exactly it funds and with what amount, it is clear that Internet users in China and elsewhere are seeking out and creating their own ad hoc solutions to access the uncensored global Internet. — Rebecca MacKinnon

After Secretary Clinton announced in January 2010 that Internet freedom would be a major pillar of U.S. foreign policy, the State Department decided to take what Clinton calls a 'venture capital' approach to the funding of tools, research, public information projects, and training. — Rebecca MacKinnon

When controversial speech can be taken offline through pressures on private intermediaries without any kind of due process, that is something we need to be concerned about. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Any new legal measures, or cooperative arrangements between government and companies meant to keep people from organizing violence or criminal actions, must not be carried out in ways that erode due process, rule of law and the protection of innocent citizens' political and civil rights. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Like it or not, Google and the Chinese government are stuck in a tense, long-term relationship, and can look forward to more high-stakes shadow-boxing in the netherworld of the world's most elaborate system of censorship. — Rebecca MacKinnon

In the wake of the Internet getting shut down in Egypt - something that also happened in Xinjiang - I know that there are groups working on ways to help people get online when domestic networks get shut down. This could also be of use to some people in China. — Rebecca MacKinnon

China's censorship and propaganda systems may be complex and multilayered, but they are obviously not well coordinated. — Rebecca MacKinnon

If China can't even given LinkedIn enough breathing room to operate in China, that would be a very unfortunate signal for a government to send its professionals about its priorities. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The Internet is empowering everybody. It's empowering Democrats. It's empowering dictators. It's empowering criminals. It's empowering people who are doing really wonderful and creative things. — Rebecca MacKinnon

One thing is very clear from the chatter I see on Chinese blogs, and also from just what people in China tell me, is that Google is much more popular among China's Internet users than the United States. — Rebecca MacKinnon

On Apple's special store for the Chinese market, apps related to the Dalai Lama are censored, as is one containing information about the exiled Uighur dissident leader Rebiya Kadeer. Apple similarly censors apps for iPads sold in China. — Rebecca MacKinnon

I lived in China for 9 years straight. I saw how my Chinese friends benefited and gained much more freedom to determine the course of their lives, their jobs, their creative works, and their identities over the course of a decade. Much of this increased freedom is thanks to economic engagement by the West. — Rebecca MacKinnon

We have to start thinking of ourselves as citizens of the Internet, not just passive users. I don't see how we can bring about change in our digital lives if we don't take responsibility. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The only legitimate purpose of government is to serve citizens, and ... the only legitimate purpose of technology is to improve our lives, not to manipulate or enslave us. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The relationship between citizens and government is increasingly mediated through the Internet. — Rebecca MacKinnon

There is clearly a constituency that appreciates the message that Google is sending, that it finds the Chinese government's attitude to the Internet and censorship unacceptable. — Rebecca MacKinnon

In Britain, a 'block list' of harmful Web sites, used by all the major Internet Service Providers, is maintained by a private foundation with little transparency and no judicial or government oversight of the list. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The critical question is: How do we ensure that the Internet develops in a way that is compatible with democracy? — Rebecca MacKinnon

The Olympics brought a lot of development to Beijing, but I don't see that there have been any changes to human rights as a result of the Olympics. — Rebecca MacKinnon

Normalization of U.S.-China relations in 1979, combined with economic reforms and opening, transformed the Chinese people's lives. — Rebecca MacKinnon

We like to think of the Internet as a border-busting technology. — Rebecca MacKinnon

If multi-stakeholder Internet governance is to survive an endless series of challenges, its champions must commit to serving the interests and protecting the rights of all Internet users around the world, particularly those in developing countries where Internet use is growing fastest. — Rebecca MacKinnon

People in China have a range of strong views about how children should be protected when they go online and whether the responsibility should be with the government, with parents, or somebody else. — Rebecca MacKinnon

When Google went into China, there were some people who said they shouldn't compromise at all - that it is very bad for human rights to do so. But there were other people, particularly Chinese people, who said they were glad Google had gone in. — Rebecca MacKinnon

There is a widening gap between the middle-aged-to-older generation, who still read newspapers and watch CCTV news, and the Internet generation. — Rebecca MacKinnon

In the physical world, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a wanted man. — Rebecca MacKinnon

The potential for the abuse of power through digital networks - upon which we the people now depend for nearly everything, including our politics - is one of the most insidious threats to democracy in the Internet age. — Rebecca MacKinnon