It’s impossible to overstate how much the Internet matters. It has forever altered how we share information and store it for safekeeping, how we communicate with political leaders, how we document atrocities and hold wrongdoers accountable, how we consume entertainment and create it, even how we meet others and maintain relationships. Our society is strengthened and made more democratic by the open access the Internet enables. But the Internet as we know it is at risk from a variety of threats ranging from cybercrime to its very infrastructure, which wasn’t built to withstand the complications our dependence upon it causes.
We asked some of the Net's biggest stakeholders and thought leaders to lay out ways we can maintain the Internet as a home for innovation, community, and freely exchanged information. We are excited to present you with these six takes on what could go wrong—and how to bring us back from the brink.
BRUCE SCHNEIER
Security consultant and CTO, Co3 Systems
By treating the Internet as a giant surveillance platform, the NSA has betrayed the Internet and the world. It has subverted the products, protocols, and standards that we use to protect ourselves. It has left us all vulnerable—to foreign governments, to cybercriminals, to hackers. And it has transformed the Internet into a medium that no one can trust.
REED HASTINGS
CEO, Netflix
The Internet has already changed how we live and work, and we're only just getting started. Who'd have thought even five years ago that people would be streaming Ultra HD 4K video over their home Internet connections?
Technological advances are driving this evolution and will continue to do so only if we make sure the companies controlling consumers' access to the Internet don't adopt business practices that stifle its revolutionary nature. The next Netflix won't stand a chance if the largest US Internet service providers are allowed to merge or demand extra fees from content companies trying to reach their subscribers.
PETER W. SINGER
Strategist, New America Foundation
The Internet may be made up of software and hardware, but it is an ecosystem that depends on a key human value: trust. The networks and systems must be able to trust the information we are sending, and in turn we have to be able to trust the information we receive.
VINTON G. CERF
Vice president and chief Internet evangelist, Google
For all of its history, the Internet has enjoyed the fruits of an openness principle: the idea that anyone can reach any site online and that information and data should be freely exchangeable. Applications such as YouTube and Skype have been introduced without the need to seek permission of any Internet service provider or government. Nearly 3 billion users enjoy myriad mobile apps and other Internet-based services thanks to the open standards, common interfaces, and rich connectivity that permissionless innovation has delivered.
DANNY HILLIS
Cofounder, Applied Minds
You may have had the bad luck of being stuck on a runway when a router failure in Utah grounded commercial flights around the country for several hours. Or maybe you were frustrated by not being able to access government websites the day the .gov domain administration had a glitch in its system. These minor mishaps over the past decade are early rumblings of an uncomfortable truth: The Internet is more fragile than it appears.
MITCHELL BAKER
Executive chairwoman, Mozilla
The Internet offers untold potential for humanity. To make the most of it, we need to think of the Internet as “ours.” Yes, part of it belongs to commercial entities. Yes, part of it is the realm of government. But the heart of the Internet—the core of its vast possibilities—is individuals taking action, making things, solving problems, and ultimately building their own environment.
