First published at 03:41 UTC on February 9th, 2018.
The EFF announced Barlow’s death in a blog post late yesterday, announcing that the organization would, “continue the work to fulfill his dream.” EFF is the leading nonprofit defending digital privacy, free speech, and innovation.
“It is no exagger…
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The EFF announced Barlow’s death in a blog post late yesterday, announcing that the organization would, “continue the work to fulfill his dream.” EFF is the leading nonprofit defending digital privacy, free speech, and innovation.
“It is no exaggeration to say that major parts of the Internet we all know and love today exist and thrive because of Barlow’s vision and leadership,” wrote the executive director of the EFF, Cindy Cohn.
“He always saw the Internet as a fundamental place of freedom, where voices long silenced can find an audience and people can connect with others regardless of physical distance.”
Barlow’s famous manifesto, “A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace,” attempted to claim the internet as a new space that shouldn’t be regulated by governments.
Barlow wrote “a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth . . . a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.”
The lasting legacy that he devoted his life to making the Internet into this, and we are all better for it.
"I knew it’s also true that a good way to invent the future is to predict it. So I predicted Utopia, hoping to give Liberty a running start before the laws of Moore and Metcalfe delivered up what Ed Snowden now correctly calls 'turn-key totalitarianism.'”
Barlow knew that new technology could create and empower evil as much as it could create and empower good. He made a conscious decision to focus on dreaming up a brighter future.
I will hold on this vision and light so that it may shine brightly and guild humanity out of the digital darkness.
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