Quotes about online
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Jimmy Wales photo

“There’s plenty of rude stuff online. People say things online that they would be ashamed to say face to face. If people could treat others as though they were speaking face to face, that would be huge.”

Jimmy Wales (1966) Wikipedia co-founder and American Internet entrepreneur

Source: As quoted in "The Encyclopedist’s Lair" in The New York Times (19 November 2007)

Bill Bailey photo
Ken Clarke photo

“No one has officially told me that I have lost the Tory whip. The fault’s probably mine. I’m notorious for only using my mobile phone for outgoing calls: nobody knows my London number and I certainly don’t do anything online. So there may somewhere be an email or text message or something telling me, but I gather from the media that there’s no doubt that I’ve lost the whip. My status otherwise is completely unclear.”

Ken Clarke (1940) British Conservative politician

Said after Clarke voted against the government on the European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 6) Bill 2017-19. Boris Johnson had promised to remove the Conservative whip from those who rebelled. Quoted by the Guardian. Ken Clarke: ‘I’m not sure yet, but I may protest and vote Lib Dem’ https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/07/ken-clarke-interview-andrew-rawnsley-lost-tory-whip (7 September 2019)
2019

Yuval Noah Harari photo
Leanne Wood photo

“I am seeing more misogyny now than I have ever seen in my political life. This seems to be a phenomena of today. It seems to come out online, on social media, but it seems to be reflecting something else that is going on in society.”

Leanne Wood (1971) Welsh Plaid Cymru politician

Leanne Wood: Abuse aimed at women 'worse than ever' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-44297300, BBC News, 30 May 2018
2018

Christopher Poole photo

“I can’t wait to contribute my own experience from a dozen years of building online communities, and to begin the next chapter of my career at such an incredible company”

Christopher Poole (1988) American Internet entrepreneur, founder of 4chan

Source: 7 March 2016 https://variety.com/2016/digital/news/google-hires-4chan-founder-chris-poole-moot-1201724308/

Marianne Williamson photo
Ian Urbina photo

“…as we become more alienated from the things we consume, especially while buying online, the out-of-sight,out-of-mind problem becomes more intense.”

Ian Urbina (1972) American journalist

On consumers being willing to avoid abuses in “Wage Theft, Slavery, and Climate Change on the Outlaw Ocean” https://civileats.com/2019/09/27/wage-theft-slavery-and-climate-change-on-the-outlaw-ocean/ (Civil Eats; 2019 Sep 27)

Guy P. Harrison photo
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith photo

“The criminal code is not an effective instrument
an administrative system that is flexible and efficient
The blunt instrument of imprisoning someone, putting them through a rigorous criminal trial, is probably not the right answer for enforcing rules against hate speech online in every instance.”

Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (1984) Canadian politician and lawyer (born 1984)

16 May 2019 https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/as-canadian-mps-weigh-how-to-police-online-hate-one-proposes-new-body-to-give-tickets-or-warnings-to-offenders

Simone Biles photo

“I feel like I realized that power after I came out, after the #MeToo movement, and that was kind of scary. But it’s like, wow, my presence is very big in gymnastics but also online, just in the world in general. So I have to be a bit careful about what I say.”

Simone Biles (1997) American gymnast

"Simone Biles and the Weight of Perfection" in The New York Times (24 July 2021) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/24/sports/olympics/simone-biles-gymnastics.html