Morozov Quotes & Sayings

Revolution may not be pro-Western or democratic. — Evgeny Morozov

For many oppositional movements, the Internet, while providing the opportunity to distribute information more quickly and cheaper, may have actually made their struggle more difficult in the long run. — Evgeny Morozov

Creative experimentation propels our culture forward. That our stories of innovation tend to glorify the breakthroughs and edit out all the experimental mistakes doesn't mean that mistakes play a trivial role. As any artist or scientist knows, without some protected, even sacred space for mistakes, innovation would cease. — Evgeny Morozov

One possible future for WikiLeaks is to morph into a gigantic media intermediary - perhaps, even something of a clearing house for investigative reporting - where even low-level leaks would be matched with the appropriate journalists to pursue and report on them and, perhaps, even with appropriate NGOs to advocate on their causes. — Evgeny Morozov

I'm rarely invited to start-up parties, but who cares about their trinkets and apps anyway? — Evgeny Morozov

Social media's greatest assets - anonymity, 'virality,' interconnectedness - are also its main weaknesses. — Evgeny Morozov

'Solutionism' for me is, above all, an unthinking pursuit of perfection - by means of technology - without coming to grips with the fact that imperfection is an essential feature of liberal democracy. — Evgeny Morozov

I have no problem with technological solutions to social problems. The key question for me is, 'Who gets to implement them?' and, 'What kinds of politics of reform do technological solutions smuggle through the back door?' — Evgeny Morozov

The bigger the network, the harder it is to leave. Many users find it too daunting to start afresh on a new site, so they quietly consent to Facebook's privacy bullying. — Evgeny Morozov

Steve Jobs was notoriously blunt about products he found wanting, but his attack on Flash - Adobe's popular technology for playing multimedia content inside a browser - was particularly vicious. Claiming it was buggy and insecure, Jobs banned it from the iPad. — Evgeny Morozov

If China's expansion into Africa and Russia's into Latin America and the former Soviet Union are any indication, Silicon Valley's ability to expand globally will be severely limited, if only because Beijing and Moscow have no qualms about blending politics and business. — Evgeny Morozov

You actually see liberals checking 'Fox News,' if only to know what the conservatives are thinking. And you're seeing conservatives who venture into liberal sources, just to know what 'The New York Times' is thinking. — Evgeny Morozov

I'm not on Facebook. I have a sort of anonymous account that I check, like, once every six months every time Facebook rolls out a new feature. — Evgeny Morozov

North Korea aside, most authoritarian governments have already accepted the growth of the Internet culture as inevitable; they have little choice but to find ways to shape it in accord with their own narratives - or risk having their narratives shaped by others. — Evgeny Morozov

This is the real tragedy of America's 'Internet freedom agenda': It's going to be the dissidents in China and Iran who will pay for the hypocrisy that drove it from the very beginning. — Evgeny Morozov

In the past it would take you weeks, if not months, to identify how Iranian activists connect to each other. Now you know how they connect to each other by looking at their Facebook page. KGB ... used to torture in order to get this data. — Evgeny Morozov

My hunch is that people often affiliate with causes online for selfish and narcissistic purposes. Sometimes, it may be as simple as trying to impress their online friends, and once you have fashioned that identity, there is very little reason to actually do anything else. — Evgeny Morozov

We can now with Google Glasses record everything around us, and we can make sure that nothing is ever forgotten because everything is stored somewhere in Google servers or somewhere else. — Evgeny Morozov

Search without Google is like social networking without Facebook: unimaginable. — Evgeny Morozov

Mobile phones are one of the most insecure devices that were ever available, so they're very easy to trace; they're very easy to tap. — Evgeny Morozov

A vibrant civil society can challenge those in power by documenting corruption or uncovering activities like the murder of political enemies. In democracies, this function is mostly performed by the media, NGOs or opposition parties. — Evgeny Morozov

Information wants to eat brie. — Evgeny Morozov

To understand the limits and opportunities of algorithms in the context of artistic creation, we need to understand that the latter usually consists of three elements: discovery, production, and recommendation. — Evgeny Morozov

WikiLeaks is what happens when the entire U.S. government is forced to go through a full-body scanner. — Evgeny Morozov

For Silicon Valley and its idols, innovation is the new selfishness. — Evgeny Morozov

Apple has an opening to say, 'The tools we are selling to you will enable you to do things rather than do things for you.' Google's vision is tools that will do things for you. — Evgeny Morozov

While free software was meant to force developers to lose sleep over ethical dilemmas, open source software was meant to end their insomnia. — Evgeny Morozov

If the only hammer you are given is the Internet, it's not surprising that every possible social and political problem is presented as an online nail. — Evgeny Morozov

I went to SXSW in 2011. God, that was awful. I mean, I only went because my publisher wanted me to promote the book and the organizers invited me and it seemed silly not to go, especially for a relatively unknown first-time author. This is just not my cup of tea; the fewer such events I do on an annual basis, the happier I feel. — Evgeny Morozov

This marketization of personal information is a big mistake. — Evgeny Morozov

The decentralized nature of online conversations often makes it easier to manipulate public opinion, both domestically and globally. Regimes that once relied on centralized systems of media control can now deliver ideological messages more subtly, with the help of little-known intermediaries like anonymous commenters on websites. — Evgeny Morozov

Someone ought to publish a book about the doomsayers who keep publishing books about the end of publishing. — Evgeny Morozov

When we can commit a crime, we can also trigger debate. Cases go to courts. Media start covering the cases. But once you build smart environments where, if you meet a certain probabilistic profile, you won't even be allowed to board a bus, let alone commit a crime, we're perpetuating existing laws so they face no challenges or revision. — Evgeny Morozov

Until the Crusades Islam was indistinguishable from Judaism and ... only then did it receive its independent character, while Muhammad and the first Caliphs are mythical figures. — Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov

As economic life relies more and more on the Internet, the potential for small bands of hackers to launch devastating attacks on the world economy is growing. — Evgeny Morozov

The great temptation of Big Data is that we can stop worrying about comprehension and focus on preventive action instead. Instead of wasting precious public resources on understanding the 'why' - i.e., exploring the reasons as to why terrorists become terrorists - one can focus on predicting the 'when' so that a timely intervention could be made. — Evgeny Morozov

Look at something like cooking. Now, you would hear a lot about smart kitchens and augmented kitchens. And what do those smart kitchens actually do? They police what's happening inside the kitchen. They have cameras that distinguish ingredients one from each other and that tell you that shouldn't mix this ingredient with another ingredient. — Evgeny Morozov

In part, slacktivism is what happens when the energy of otherwise dedicated activists is wasted on approaches that are less effective than the alternatives. — Evgeny Morozov

Once Google is selected to run the infrastructure on which we are changing the world, Google will be there for ever. Democratic accountability will not be prevalent. You cannot file a public information request about Google. — Evgeny Morozov

Contrary to the utopian rhetoric of social media enthusiasts, the Internet often makes the jump from deliberation to participation even more difficult, thwarting collective action under the heavy pressure of never-ending internal debate. — Evgeny Morozov

To fully absorb the lessons of the Internet, urge the Internet-centrists, we need to reshape our political and social institutions in its image. — Evgeny Morozov

A faithful lifehacker would use technology to avoid dead time and move on to the entertaining, more gratifying activities as soon as possible. — Evgeny Morozov

Cybercriminals are usually driven by profit, while cyberterrorists are driven by ideology. — Evgeny Morozov

Dictators aren't stupid, or regimes could be toppled easily by young people mobilizing on Facebook. — Evgeny Morozov

Much of the real computer talent today is concentrated in the private sector. — Evgeny Morozov

As befits Silicon Valley, 'big data' is mostly big hype, but there is one possibility with genuine potential: that it might one day bring loans - and credit histories - to millions of people who currently lack access to them. — Evgeny Morozov

In China, Internet surveillance has already become a profitable industry. In fact, a growing number of private firms eagerly assist the local police by aggregating this data and presenting it in easy-to-browse formats, allowing humans to pursue more analytical tasks. — Evgeny Morozov

If my idea was just to maintain a certain lifestyle, there would be no need to get a Ph.D. But I do care very deeply about the idea side as well. — Evgeny Morozov

Truly smart technologies will remind us that we are not mere automatons who assist big data in asking and answering questions. — Evgeny Morozov

When it is about technology, there is this tendency to just reject all criticism as being anti-technological and anti-modern. I think this is very unhealthy. — Evgeny Morozov

My fear is that many institutions will eventually alter how they treat people who refuse to self-track. There are all sorts of political and moral implications here, and I'm not sure that we have grappled with any of them. — Evgeny Morozov

To me, the success of the cyberactivists in Tunisia is actually very interesting, because many of them explicitly rejected any support from Washington. — Evgeny Morozov

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

I want to prevent us reifying 'the Internet' as something to be preserved like some people want to preserve the American Constitution as it was written. — Evgeny Morozov

The director of the FBI has been visiting Silicon Valley companies asking them to build back doors so that it can spy on what is being said online. The Department of Commerce is going after piracy. At home, the American government wants anything but Internet freedom. — Evgeny Morozov

There is this huge Roma problem in Europe. There are a lot of Romas who are discriminated against in countries like the Czech Republic or Hungary. They are an ethnic minority that in Europe everyone loves to hate. — Evgeny Morozov

In reality, quitting Facebook is much more problematic than the company's executives suggest, if only because users cannot extract all the intangible social capital they have generated on the site and export it elsewhere. — Evgeny Morozov

Simply getting a country's population online is not going to trigger a revolution in critical thinking. — Evgeny Morozov

Just as Josef K, the protagonist of Kafka's 'The Trial,' awoke one day to discover that he had become part of some unfathomable legal carnival, we, too are frequently waking to discover that the rules of the digital game have once again profoundly changed. — Evgeny Morozov

If you trace the history of mankind, our evolution has been mediated by technology, and without technology it's not really obvious where we would be. So I think we have always been cyborgs in this sense. — Evgeny Morozov

Would you like all of your Facebook friends to sift through your trash? A group of designers from Britain and Germany think that you might. Meet BinCam: a 'smart' trash bin that aims to revolutionize the recycling process. — Evgeny Morozov

Cyberattacks have become a permanent fixture on the international scene because they have become easy and cheap to launch. Basic computer literacy and a modest budget can go a long way toward invading a country's cyberspace. — Evgeny Morozov

The spirit of the Internet. This spirit is a powerful myth concocted by overzealous legal activists, and the sooner we bury it, the better. — Evgeny Morozov

If you use your smart toothbrush, the data can be immediately sent to your dentist and your insurance company, but it also allows someone from the NSA to know what was in your mouth three weeks ago. — Evgeny Morozov

If WikiLeaks were a for-profit company, determining its real value would be a nearly impossible task. — Evgeny Morozov

Why does crime happen? Well, you might say that it's because youths don't have jobs. Or you might say that's because the doors of our buildings are not fortified enough. Given some limited funds to spend, you can either create yet another national employment program or you can equip houses with even better cameras, sensors, and locks. — Evgeny Morozov

Making loans accessible to millions of the previously unbankable customers is a noble goal. Getting them hooked to such loans isn't. — Evgeny Morozov

A lot of the geeks in Silicon Valley will tell you they no longer believe in the ability of policymakers in Washington to accomplish anything. They don't understand why people end up in politics; they would do much more good for the world if they worked at Google or Facebook. — Evgeny Morozov

For all its shortcomings, Wikipedia does have strong governance and deliberative mechanisms; anyone who has ever followed discussions on Wikipedia's mailing lists will confirm that its moderators and administrators openly discuss controversial issues on a regular basis. — Evgeny Morozov

The goal of privacy is not to protect some stable self from erosion but to create boundaries where this self can emerge, mutate, and stabilize. — Evgeny Morozov

In addition to their 'do no evil' motto, Googlers have always been guided by another, much less explicit philosophy: 'computational arrogance.' — Evgeny Morozov

As leakers take great risks in releasing information, assuring them that they are not sacrificing themselves in vain and that their leaks would have public consequences would most likely encourage more people to leak. — Evgeny Morozov

It is easy to be seen as either a genius or a crank. If you have a Ph.D., at least you somewhat lower the chances that you will be seen as a crank. — Evgeny Morozov

The reason why there is more pessimism about technology in Europe has to do with history, the use of databases to keep track of people in the camps, ecological disasters. — Evgeny Morozov

The newspaper offers something very different from Google's aggregators. It offers a value system, an idea of what matters in the world. Newspapers need to start articulating that value. — Evgeny Morozov

The Egyptian experience suggests that social media can greatly accelerate the death of already dying authoritarian regimes. — Evgeny Morozov

Technology changes all the time; human nature, hardly ever. — Evgeny Morozov

The implications are clear: Facebook wants to build an Internet where watching films, listening to music, reading books and even browsing is done not just openly but socially and collaboratively. — Evgeny Morozov

I think governments will increasingly be tempted to rely on Silicon Valley to solve problems like obesity or climate change because Silicon Valley runs the information infrastructure through which we consume information. — Evgeny Morozov

Information technology has been one of the leading drivers of globalization, and it may also become one of its major victims. — Evgeny Morozov

[People] somehow assume that the Internet is going to be the catalyst of change that will push young people into the streets, while in fact it may actually be the new opium for the masses which will keep the same people in their rooms downloading pornography. — Evgeny Morozov

If Amazon's dream of a world without gatekeepers becomes reality, then the company itself will become a powerful gatekeeper. — Evgeny Morozov

You know, it's not a given that there is an 'online' and 'offline' world out there. When you use the telephone, you don't say that I'm entering some 'telephono-sphere.' You don't say that, and there is no obvious need to say that when you are using a modem. — Evgeny Morozov

If we don't like rent control, we ought to oppose it on political and social grounds - and not just by arguing that, thanks to smartphones and social networks, we can create new, more efficient markets for matching short-term renters with tenants. — Evgeny Morozov

It is true that authoritarian governments increasingly see the Internet as a threat in part because they see the U.S. government behind the Internet. — Evgeny Morozov

There is this group of people who love innovation. Those people want to innovate, and they think the Internet is a wonderful tool for innovation, which is true. But you also have to remember that much of that innovation is constrained within the realities of the foreign policy. — Evgeny Morozov

One would think that by the second decade of the twenty-first century, the intellectual poverty of technocracy and the primacy of politics over it would be a well-established truth in need of no further defense. — Evgeny Morozov

There is no doubt that the Internet brims with spamming, scamming and identity fraud. Having someone wipe out your hard drive or bank account has never been easier, and the tools for committing electronic mischief on your enemies are cheap and widely accessible. — Evgeny Morozov

The global triumph of American technology has been predicated on the implicit separation between the business interests of Silicon Valley and the political interests of Washington. — Evgeny Morozov

We've never thought too deeply about the roles things like forgetting or partisanship or inefficiency or ambiguity or hypocrisy play in our political or social life. It's been impossible to get rid of them, so we took them for granted, and we kind of thought, naively, that they're always the enemy. — Evgeny Morozov

In Google's world, public space is just something that stands between your house and the well-reviewed restaurant that you are dying to get to. — Evgeny Morozov

Military commanders do not want to be tried for war crimes, even if those crimes are committed online. — Evgeny Morozov

There is this absurd assumption that the revitalisation of the public sphere is always a good thing. I think people tend to confuse 'civic' and 'civil,' and they believe that everything that is done by citizens is necessarily a good thing because you build a network, an association. — Evgeny Morozov

When someone at the State Department proclaims Facebook to be the most organic tool for promoting democracy the world has ever seen - that's a direct quote - it may help in the short run by getting more people onto Facebook by making it more popular with dissidents. — Evgeny Morozov

For much of its existence, design was all about convenience. We wanted to hide technology so that users are not distracted into thinking about the tools they use. — Evgeny Morozov

The unthinking glorification of digital activism makes its practitioners confuse priorities with capabilities. Getting people onto the streets, which may indeed become easier with modern communication tools, is usually the last stage of a protest movement, in both democracies and autocracies. One cannot start with protests and think of political demands and further steps later on. There are real dangers to substituting startegic and long-term action with spontaneous street marches. — Evgeny Morozov

Smart technologies are not just disruptive; they can also preserve the status quo. Revolutionary in theory, they are often reactionary in practice. — Evgeny Morozov

I'm active on Twitter, and I love my iPad and my Kindle. — Evgeny Morozov

I don't think love for technology itself breeds change. — Evgeny Morozov

However revolutionary it may be, the Internet still hasn't altered the basic law of human communication: Being nice to your interlocutors is a good way to start any negotiations, particularly, when being hostile is an open invitation for a cyber-fight. — Evgeny Morozov