PRAGUE -

Hi Callum, I’d like to hear your thoughts on the intersection between technology and politics. This is sort of a broad umbrella topic we’re going to be addressing today. I know it’s extremely broad, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts on the issue on what are some of the elements that the internet is turning into a prime political topic worldwide?

For us at the Internet Society, we’re a global nonprofit organization that’s focused on building, promoting, and defending the internet, our kind of slogan is that the internet should be for everyone. And I think what makes our organization kind of unique is that we have a really strong global community. So in addition to the headquarters where I work, we have over 110 chapters around the world, as well as over 100,000 individual members that kind of support our cause and believe in our issue and our kind of vision for the internet. To answer your question [about] why that’s compelling not just for us but also for our community of supporters, it’s because the internet and digital topics are such a fast-moving field. [T]hings are developing very quickly and they’re intersecting with politics because every issue, case, or political issue is being amplified or kind of echoed on the internet. So when we’re deciding about these issues in real life, there’s always a digital element that [must] also be decided. So they’re really interlinked when it comes to illegal content, legal content, hate speech, [and] health rights. These are all being amplified on the internet as well. So that’s why we [and our supporters] care about it, and probably a little bit of what we’re going to talk about today. 

[To] further this question or take a deep dive, these issues of hate speech, privacy, [and] security, all these issues have been around for a while. [However,] now it seems that the debate is moving [away] from this fair and coherent