A eulogy for the 'good' internet
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 30 September 2022
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When the World Wide Web was launched in 1991, hopes for it were high. But three decades later, the internet seems to be defined not by interconnectivity and liberation, but by scandal, abuse and polarisation. Political journalist Marie Le Conte remembers a different internet -- from those early days. An internet that was fun, freeing and joyful. The 'good' internet.
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Guest: Marie Le Conte, political journalist
Host: Manveen Rana.
Clips: CBSN, BBC, Sky News, Parliament TV, "Panic Attack " (C), The Paddingtons / Mercury Records.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The humble postcode, an unassuming set of numbers and letters, but sometimes they can do |
| 0:05.2 | something extraordinary. |
| 0:06.7 | In our October draws, your postcode could bring you and your neighbours a share of 11.2 |
| 0:11.3 | million pounds. |
| 0:12.7 | It could mean making your house into the home you've always dreamed of. |
| 0:16.2 | Sign up before midnight of the 21st of September and see what extraordinary things your postcode |
| 0:20.9 | could do. |
| 0:21.9 | People's postcode lottery. |
| 0:22.9 | Good things come knocking. |
| 0:23.9 | People's postcode lottery manage lotteries on behalf of good causes, 18-plus condition |
| 0:27.6 | supply, play responsibly not available in Northern Ireland. |
| 0:37.2 | When the internet was invented, it presented the world with such hope. |
| 0:43.0 | Finally, people all over the world could connect and collaborate. |
| 0:50.0 | Everyone would have free access to information and a world that they wouldn't otherwise |
| 0:54.9 | get to experience. |
| 0:59.1 | But now, three decades later, even the people who invented it would admit that life online |
| 1:05.8 | hasn't all gone to plan. |
| 1:09.4 | The inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee says he is devastated at how his invention turned |
| 1:15.5 | out. |
| 1:16.5 | It's a jasminy, 30 years ago, where we'd be. |
| 1:20.4 | I kind of were hoped that we'd be using web tools effectively to promote democracy. |
| 1:26.0 | What we see now with Cambridge Analytica, the spread of misinformation, lack of accountability, |
... |
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