History is rife with examples of governments taking actions to 'protect' their citizens from harm by controlling access to information and inhibiting freedom of expression and other freedoms outlined in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We must make sure, collectively, that the Internet avoids a similar fate.
Interpretation
The quote warns against government censorship and emphasizes the importance of information freedom.
Vint Cerf highlights the historical tendency of governments to restrict access to information under the guise of protecting citizens. He underscores the necessity for collective action to ensure that the Internet remains a free and open space for expression, contrasting it with the oppressive control seen in the past regarding freedoms enshrined in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In practice
In a discussion about censorship laws in a local community meeting.
One thing we know for sure is that the Web is a collaborative medium unlike any we've ever had before. We see people working together, playing together, interacting in social settings using these media. We hope that will emerge as the new tool for education.
I want more Internet. I want every one of the 6 billion people on the planet to be able to connect to the Internet - I think they will add things to it that will really benefit us all.
Allowing a handful of broadband carriers to determine what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the features that have made the Internet such a success, and could permanently compromise the Internet as a platform for the free exchange of information, commerce, and ideas.
Given that my title at Google is Chief Internet Evangelist, I feel like there is this great challenge before me because we have three billion users, and there are seven billion people in the world.
Improving the Internet is just one means, albeit an important one, by which to improve the human condition. It must be done with an appreciation for the civil and human rights that deserve protection - without pretending that access itself is such a right.
You don't have to be young to learn about technology. You have to feel young.
I understand a fury in your words But not your words.
Religion is as effectively destroyed by bigotry as by indifference.
We do not pray to God to instruct Him as to what He should do; neither for a moment must we presume to dictate the method of the divine working.
Men really need sea-monsters in their personal oceans. An ocean without its unnamed monsters would be like a completely dreamless sleep.
When you destroy a population, once femicide happens, we're going to see the end of humanity, because I don't know how you sustain a future without vitalised women.
A man's liberties are none the less aggressed upon because those who coerce him do so in the belief that he will be benefited.
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