As the Web becomes an ever more ubiquitous part of our culture at large, we’re going to hear more and more about it from our elected officials. For good or for bad, these people do have a lot to say about the World Wide Web, many of them quite technologically savvy (and many with glaring gaps in their knowledge of the Internet). Here are just a few quotes from politicians and other people in the public eye relating to life online.
Hilary Clinton, Former Secretary of State and U.S. Presidential Candidate
(in response to Donald Trump on Twitter): “Delete your account.”
Donald Trump, U.S. Presidential Candidate/President
“ISIS is recruiting through the Internet. ISIS is using the Internet better than we are using the Internet and it was our idea. I want to get the brilliant people from Silicon Valley and other places and figure out a way that ISIS can’t do what they’re doing…..We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what’s happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some way. Somebody will say, ‘Oh freedom of speech, freedom of speech.’ These are foolish people. We have a lot of foolish people.”
Donald Rumsfeld, Former Secretary of Defense
Oh my goodness gracious, what you can buy off the Internet in terms of overhead photography. A trained ape can know an awful lot of what is going on in this world, just by punching on his mouse, for a relatively modest cost.
Jimmy Carter, Former President of the United States
Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing… you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn’t affect two-thirds of the people of the world.
Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, Former First Lady
Both the American people and nations that censor the internet should understand that our government is committed to helping promote internet freedom.
Bob Dole, Senator
The internet is a great way to get on the net.
President Barack Obama
The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.
Dan Quayle, Former Vice President
If Al Gore invented the Internet, I invented spell check.
Al Gore, Former Vice President
The day I made that statement, about the inventing the internet, I was tired because I’d been up all night inventing the Camcorder.
The Internet empowers individuals to play a more active role in the political process, as Obama’s campaign has manifested.
Herman Cain, 2012 Presidential Candidate
My presence in the social media and on the Internet is much bigger than many of the other candidates, including Mitt Romney. So, when you take the social media and you take the Tea Party citizens movement, you have a combination there that, quite frankly, 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have had a chance.
John Sununu, Former White House Chief of Staff
The Internet will win because it is relentless. Like a cannibal, it even turns on it own. Though early portals like Prodigy and AOL once benefited from their first-mover status, competitors surpassed them as technology and consumer preferences changed.
Not since the steam engine has any invention disrupted business models like the Internet. Whole industries including music distribution, yellow-pages directories, landline telephones, and fax machines have been radically reordered by the digital revolution.
Bill Clinton, Former President
Because primarily of the power of the Internet, people of modest means can band together and amass vast sums of money that can change the world for some public good if they all agree.
Jack Kemp, Former Housing Secretary
I think Bush understands the Internet and the incredible expansion of global e-commerce.
Ron Wyden, Oregon State Senator
The Internet has changed the way we communicate with each other, the way we learn about the world and the way we conduct business.
As Members of Congress, we can now engage with our constituents via online innovations like the Huffington Post, while a small business in rural Oregon can use the Internet to find customers around the world.
The internet, Facebook, and Twitter have created mass communications and social spaces that regimes cannot control.
Barney Frank, U.S. Representative
The left and the right live in parallel universes. The right listens to talk radio, the left’s on the Internet and they just reinforce one another. They have no sense of reality. I have now one ambition: to retire before it becomes essential to tweet.
Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations
We cannot wait for governments to do it all. Globalization operates on Internet time. Governments tend to be slow moving by nature because they have to build political support for every step.
Dennis Hastert, Former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
The federal government seeks to control and regulate the Internet, but the last thing this Congress should be doing is trying to stifle public debate online.
Jerry Brown, Governor of California
I like computers. I like the Internet. It’s a tool that can be used. But don’t be misled into thinking that these technologies are anything other than aspects of a degenerate economic system.