A Quote by John Perry Barlow

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

John Perry Barlow

Quote Topics

Technology Around Censorship Internet Malfunction Routes Treats

Quote Author

John Perry Barlow
American - Writer
October 3, 1947 - February 7, 2018

The internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.

John Gilmour

There's a popular saying that the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. Desire and innovation will trump policy, the argument goes, as clever programmers circumvent controls.

Virginia Postrel

People were touchingly naive at the dawn of the Internet revolution when they said the Internet will route around censorship the way it routes around damage. With any revolution, the establishment catches up and figures out how to screw it up. The answer is to keep technology advancing fast enough so that those who would try to control it can't. It's up to people to defend what they care about. We shouldn't be complacent that this stuff is going to be a force for good.

Paul Saffo

The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.

John Gilmore

If you have an internet service provider that's capable of slowing down other sites, or putting other sites out of business, or favoring their own friends and affiliates and customers who can pay for fast lanes, that's a horrible infringement on free speech. It's censorship by media monopolies. It's tragic: here we have a technology, the internet, that's capable really of being the town square of democracy, paved with broadband bricks, and we are letting it be taken over by a few gatekeepers. This is a first amendment issue; it's free speech versus corporate censorship.

Michael Copps

I have a very specific definition of censorship. Censorship must be done by the government or it's not censorship.

Penn Jillette

Overall there may be less censorship in America than in China, but censorship and self-censorship are not only from political pressure, but also pressures from other places in a society.

Yiyun Li

Service disruptions have to be avoided or at least resolved as quickly as possible. When the Internet goes down, consumers don't notice the difference between a technical malfunction, an act of sabotage by hackers or a military attack.

Thomas de Maiziere

Even with censorship, the Internet is a force for change.

Peter Singer

I embrace treats, but I'm also very wary of treats. Treats help us feel energized, appreciated, and enthusiastic - but very often, the things we choose as 'treats' aren't good for us. The pleasure lasts a minute, but then feelings of guilt, loss of control, and other negative consequences just deepen the lousiness of the day.

Gretchen Rubin

China is the most repressive censorship regime on the Internet.

John Palfrey

Chinese central government doesn't need to even lead public opinion: it just selectively stops censorship. In other words, just as censorship is a political tool, so is the absence of censorship.