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Rebecca Mackinnon Quotes

Powerful Rebecca Mackinnon for Daily Growth

About Rebecca Mackinnon

Rebecca MacKinnon is an acclaimed American-born journalist, internet activist, and academic. Born on March 16, 1969, in New York City to Chinese parents who were civil rights activists, MacKinnon was raised in a multicultural environment that greatly influenced her perspective on global issues, particularly those related to technology and human rights. After earning her Bachelor's degree from Swarthmore College, she pursued a Master's degree at Stanford University's Institute of International Studies, focusing on China's political and social development. Her studies would later serve as the foundation for her groundbreaking work in digital censorship and internet freedom. In 2004, MacKinnon joined the staff of Chen Weiheng, a Chinese government-appointed representative to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. This experience provided her with firsthand insights into China's Internet control system, inspiring her seminal work, "Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom" (2012). From 2006 to 2014, MacKinnon served as a fellow at the New America Foundation's Cybersecurity Initiative. During this time, she co-founded the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs, where her research focused on investigating and documenting digital espionage and information control practices by nation states. MacKinnon is currently a visiting professor at the Stanford University Law School and a non-resident senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She continues to advocate for internet freedom, digital privacy, and human rights in the digital age through her writing, speaking engagements, and academic work.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"The internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."

The quote highlights the inherent resilience and adaptability of the internet, suggesting that when attempts at censorship occur (damage), the internet will naturally find ways to bypass those restrictions and continue to function freely. It underscores the decentralized nature of the internet, where information can be shared globally without relying on a single source or authority, making it challenging for governments or organizations to control the flow of information entirely.

"In authoritarian societies, the Internet can be especially transformative because it's a way to get information from the outside world that the government doesn't want its citizens to know about."

This quote highlights how essential the internet is in authoritarian societies, where governments restrict information flow. The internet serves as a vital conduit for citizens to access knowledge that their governments aim to suppress or censor. In such contexts, it becomes an instrumental tool for promoting transparency, fostering critical thinking, and facilitating social change – all key components of a functioning democracy. However, without proper protections and safeguards, the use of the internet in these societies can also pose risks and challenges, including censorship, surveillance, and cyber attacks.

"Democracies don't die because too many people love freedom to speech; they die because not enough people care whether or not they live in a democracy."

This quote emphasizes that the survival of democracies relies on more than just valuing freedom of speech; it also requires an active commitment to preserving democratic values. In a democracy, freedom of speech is essential but not sufficient for its longevity. When citizens do not care about the state of their democracy, they become complacent and may allow erosions in democratic norms and institutions to occur unchallenged. Thus, the quote implies that it's vital for everyone in a democracy to remain engaged, vigilant, and actively care about whether or not they live in a thriving democracy.

"One of the challenges in democracies is that we often assume that everyone has access to the same information, when the reality is that information environments can be quite unequal and uneven."

This quote emphasizes a critical issue in modern democracies: not all citizens have equal access to information. While it's a common assumption that information is freely available for everyone, the truth is that the distribution of information isn't always fair or balanced. Information inequality can lead to disparities in knowledge, understanding, and decision-making power among citizens, potentially undermining the democratic process. To ensure a truly informed citizenry, it's essential to address these inequalities and work towards a more even and accessible information environment.

"The history of the internet shows us that the 'network always wins' — because people will always find ways to communicate with each other, despite attempts at control from above."

This quote highlights the inherent resilience and adaptability of networks, particularly the internet. The phrase "the network always wins" suggests that no matter what efforts are made to control or limit communication (from above), people will find ways to connect and communicate with each other. This has been consistently demonstrated throughout the history of the internet, as it continues to evolve and adapt in response to both technological advancements and attempts at regulation. Essentially, this quote emphasizes that the power of human connection through networks is a force that persists regardless of external control or influence.

Human freedom increasingly depends on who controls what we know and, therefore, how we understand our world. It depends on what information we are able to create and disseminate: what we can share, how we can share it, and with whom we can share it.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Controls, Increasingly, Our World

A moral argument about whether censorship is good or bad deteriorates quickly into accusations about who is more or less patriotic, moral, pious, and so on.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Bad, More, Patriotic, Argument

WikiLeaks published the Afghan War Logs and U.S. diplomatic cables stolen from a classified network by an Army private.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

War, Private, Afghan, Log

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

Google, Clearly, Appreciates, Unacceptable

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

Political, Sometimes, Least, Chinese

Trade shows such as the wire tappers' ball are highly secretive and ban journalists from attending. None of the U.S. agencies that attended the wire tappers' ball - including the FBI, the Secret Service, and every branch of the military - were willing to comment when a reporter queried them about their attendance.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Willing, About, None, Secretive

There is a great deal of concern in the Chinese military that Taiwan's reunification with China is drifting further and further away.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Deal, Chinese, Taiwan, Drifting

The fact of the matter is that fewer people in Tokyo are able to do business in English than in many other big Asian cities, like Shanghai, Seoul or Bangkok.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Fact, Big, Other, Bangkok

Whether it's Baidu or Chinese versions of YouTube or Sina or Sohu, Chinese Internet sites are getting daily directives from the government telling them what kinds of content they cannot allow on their site and what they need to delete.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

YouTube, Allow, Telling, Sites

In Britain, a 'block list' of harmful Web sites, used by all the major Internet Service Providers, is maintained by a private foundation with little transparency and no judicial or government oversight of the list.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Private, Britain, Web Sites, Sites

Compliance with the Stop Online Piracy Act would require huge overhead spending by Internet companies for staff and technologies dedicated to monitoring users and censoring any infringing material from being posted or transmitted.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Piracy, Transmitted, Posted

The way I think liberties get eroded is not that all of a sudden you become an Orwellian state, but gradually it becomes harder for people with unpopular views to speak out without being in danger, be it from the state or just from the majority of the people who don't like them.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Danger, Without, I Think, Eroded

The user in China wants the same thing that any Internet user wants - privacy in conversations, maximum access to information, and the ability to speak their minds online.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Privacy, Access, Same Thing, Conversations

It would be normal for anybody running a high-profile, politically controversial operation in China to anticipate worst-case scenario, and to do everything possible to guard against them.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Normal, Against, Anybody, Operation

While Google no longer has a search engine operation inside China, it has maintained a large presence in Beijing and Shanghai focused on research and development, advertising sales, and mobile platform development.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Development, Mobile, Large, Operation

Facebook is blocked in mainland China, but is used heavily by the rest of the Chinese-speaking world, including Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Rest, Facebook, Including, Singapore

For centuries, the Yangtze River - the longest in Asia - has played an important role in China's history, culture, and economy. The Yangtze is as quintessentially Chinese as the Nile is Egyptian or the Rhine is German. Many businesses use its name.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Longest, Centuries, German, Egyptian

What role did the Internet play in the Egyptian Revolution? People will be arguing about the answer to that question for decades if not centuries.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Play, Role, Centuries, Egyptian

The Egyptian Revolution makes it clear, if anybody was in doubt, that digital technologies are going to play a powerful role in the future of global politics.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Politics, Play, Digital, Egyptian

On March 5, 2011, protesters stormed the Egyptian state security headquarters. In real time, activists shared their discoveries on Twitter as they moved through a building that had until recently been one of the Mubarak regime's largest torture facilities.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Through, Shared, Largest, Egyptian

As in Pakistan, Tunisian and Egyptian human rights activists are concerned that any censorship mechanisms, once put in place, will inevitably be abused for political purposes no matter what censorship proponents claim to the contrary.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Will, Concerned, Pakistan, Egyptian

The Patriot Act, passed overwhelmingly but hastily after 9/11, allows the FBI to obtain telecommunication, financial, and credit records without a court order.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Records, Patriot Act, Obtain, FBI

China is building a model for how an authoritarian government can survive the Internet.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Government, Survive, How, Authoritarian

Authoritarian systems evolve. Authoritarianism in the Internet Age is not your old Cold War authoritarianism.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Evolve, Authoritarianism, Authoritarian

Pretty much anybody who does creative work in China navigates the gray zone. People aren't clear about where the line is any more, beyond which life gets really nasty and you become a dissident without having intended ever to be one.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Line, Anybody, About, Nasty

The Tunisian blogger and activist Sami Ben Gharbia has written passionately about how U.S. government involvement in grassroots digital spaces can endanger those who are already vulnerable to accusations by nasty regimes of acting as foreign agents.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

About, Ben, Foreign, Nasty

One thing is very clear from the chatter I see on Chinese blogs, and also from just what people in China tell me, is that Google is much more popular among China's Internet users than the United States.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

United, Very, Blogs, Chatter

Consistently, Baidu has censored politically sensitive search results much more thoroughly than Google.cn.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Search, More, Thoroughly, Censored

On Apple's special store for the Chinese market, apps related to the Dalai Lama are censored, as is one containing information about the exiled Uighur dissident leader Rebiya Kadeer. Apple similarly censors apps for iPads sold in China.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Leader, Apple, About, Censored

I haven't heard of any cases of anti-American blog posts being censored or bloggers encountering consequences for anti-American speech on the web in China.

- Rebecca MacKinnon

Anti-American, Being, Cases, Censored

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