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.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The desire for security must be balanced with our regard for liberty.
Most people want security in this world, not liberty.
As a society, we haven't spent as much time building the citizen Internet.
The Internet has made us richer, freer, connected and informed in ways its founders could not have dreamt of. It has also become a vector of attack, espionage, crime and harm.
It is not inevitable that the Internet will evolve in a manner compatible with democracy.
It is important to distinguish between the power of the Internet to make the great change it can, and the limits and vulnerabilities of that change without real-time political mobilization deployed globally to protect those who venture out, especially in closed societies, into the heady new vistas it offers.
The benefits of our increasingly digital lives have been accompanied by new dangers, and we have been forced to consider how criminals and terrorists might use advances in technology to their advantage.
The critical question is: How do we ensure that the Internet develops in a way that is compatible with democracy?
The Internet is a bright spot for our struggling economy and functioning just fine without what amounts to a federal pat-down of the inner workings of the Internet.
If technology has finally caught up with individual liberty, why would anyone who loves freedom want to rethink that?