32 Quotes & Sayings By Rebecca Mackinnon

Rebecca MacKinnon is a senior fellow with the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University. Previously, she was a fellow at Yale Law School's Information Society Project and a staff lawyer for the ACLU of Northern California. In 2010, she received the John M. Olin Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, "for her work as a pioneer in the digital rights movement." Her writing has been featured in The New York Times Magazine, Wired, The Atlantic, The New Yorker , and Mother Jones Read more

She is the author of Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009) and Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010), which won the 2010 Freedom to Read Award from First Amendment Center.

In modern politics, even the leader of the free world...
1
In modern politics, even the leader of the free world needs help from the sultan of Facebookistan. Rebecca MacKinnon
2
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
3
There is respect for law, and then there is complicity in lawlessness. Rebecca MacKinnon
4
We must all rise to the challenge to demonstrate that security and prosperity in the Internet age are not only compatible with liberty, they ultimately depend on it. Rebecca MacKinnon
5
Whether or not Americans supported George W. Bush, they could not avoid learning about Abu Ghraib. Rebecca MacKinnon
6
The Internet is an empowering force for people who are protesting against the abuse of power. Rebecca MacKinnon
7
Governance is a way of organizing, amplifying, and constraining power. Rebecca MacKinnon
8
Over time, if you want rights, you have to also show that you can use them responsibly and that you can build a positive world in the online space, and that's also very important. Rebecca MacKinnon
9
Every year in China, Internet executives are officially rewarded for their 'patriotism.' Rebecca MacKinnon
10
It becomes dangerous for somebody who doesn't want their boss to know their sexual preference to use online networks to push for laws supporting gay marriage or same-sex partner rights if they can't do so with a pseudonym. Rebecca MacKinnon
11
Public trust in both government and corporations is low, and deservedly so. Rebecca MacKinnon
12
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
13
When Tim Berners-Lee invented the computer code that led to the creation of the World Wide Web in 1990, he did not try to patent or charge fees for the use of his technology. Rebecca MacKinnon
14
Despite the Obama administration's proclaimed commitment to global Internet freedom, the executive branch is not transparent about the types and capabilities of surveillance technologies it is sourcing and purchasing - or about what other governments are purchasing the same technology. Rebecca MacKinnon
15
It is time to stop debating whether the Internet is an effective tool for political expression and instead to address the much more urgent question of how digital technology can be structured, governed, and used to maximize the good and minimize the evil. Rebecca MacKinnon
16
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
17
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
18
If China someday gains a more fair, just, and accountable system of government, it will be due to the hard work and efforts of the Chinese people, not due to the inexorable workings of any particular technology. Rebecca MacKinnon
19
We like to think of the Internet as a border-busting technology. Rebecca MacKinnon
20
As it turns out, American-made technology had helped Mubarak and his security state collect, compile, and parse vast amounts of data about everyday citizens. Rebecca MacKinnon
21
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
22
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
23
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
24
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
25
Even in democratic society, we don't have good answers how to balance the need for security on one hand and the protection of free speech on the other in our digital networks. Rebecca MacKinnon
26
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
27
To have a .cn domain, you have to be a registered business. You have to prove your site is legal. Rebecca MacKinnon
28
If they lose their legal basis for owning a .cn domain, google.cn would cease to exist, or if it continued to exist, it would be illegal, and doing anything blatantly illegal in China puts their employees at serious risk. Rebecca MacKinnon
29
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
30
Thanks to the Internet in general and social media in particular, the Chinese people now have a mechanism to hold authorities accountable for wrongdoing - at least sometimes - without any actual political or legal reforms having taken place. Major political power struggles and scandals are no longer kept within elite circles. Rebecca MacKinnon
31
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