Tom Malinowski Quotes on Society & Civilization (2 Quotes)

China is already exporting technology for monitoring the Internet to other repressive governments -- Zimbabwe, for example. And such governments in every part of the world are now watching to see if China can bend Internet providers to its will. If China succeeds, other countries will insist on the same degree of compliance, and the companies will have no standing to refuse them. We will have two Internets, one for open societies, and one for closed societies. The whole vision of a World Wide Web, which breaks down barriers and empowers people to shape their destiny, will be gone. Instead, in the 21st century, we will have a virtual Iron Curtain dividing the democratic and undemocratic worlds.

It is illogical for companies to say they are expanding the boundaries of freedom in China if they strip their product of the very qualities that make it a force for greater freedom. These companies must protect the integrity of the product they are providing, or that product will no longer be the Internet as we know it, and will no longer have the impact on society we all wish to see.