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.
A lot of people agree that tidying is connected to how we live, and even though, outside of Japan, houses might be bigger, people have more things than they need.
I liked the thought of being a country clergyman. Accordingly I read with care Pearson on the Creed and a few other books on divinity; and as I did not then in the least doubt the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible, I soon persuaded myself that our Creed must be fully accepted.
Philosophy is the childhood of the intellect, and a culture that tries to skip it will never grow up.
The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.
Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth.
We cannot let our angels go; we do not see that they only go out that archangels may come in.
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