Matthew Mott - Quillette

Is It Time to Regulate Social Media?

We would not tolerate a phone company cutting off somebody’s service because of the words they used in their conversations.

Matthew Mott

13 Sep 2018 · 8 min read

Online Hate Speech and the Nazi Pug

“Hate speech” has become the reliable battle-cry of the modern-day censor, but it is a largely meaningless concept.

Matthew Mott

26 Mar 2018 · 6 min read

The Internet Is Not a Children’s TV Channel

The internet is not a TV station, a babysitter, a shopping mall, a kindergarten, or a support group.

Matthew Mott

23 Jan 2018 · 6 min read

Internet Infrastructure is the New Battleground for Free Speech

This robustness does still exist, but only at a fairly low level, where raw packets of data are routed between numerical addresses.

Matthew Mott

15 Sep 2017 · 4 min read

Science, Sin, and Paternalism

The message is loud and clear: sugar is bad, government regulation is good, and now we have the science to prove it.

Matthew Mott

15 Aug 2017 · 5 min read

Censorship, the Authoritarian's Snake Oil

The desire to censor is not entirely impossible to understand. When you encounter an idiotic YouTube comment or forum post.

Matthew Mott

31 May 2017 · 6 min read

Denying Encryption To Terrorists Is A Fantasy

The Home Office could demand more surveillance abilities for law enforcement, but here it is difficult to see what they could ask for that they don’t already have.

Matthew Mott

19 Apr 2017 · 5 min read

Censorship-Free Social Media: the Next Big Thing, or Just Another Echo Chamber?

One of the forefathers of the modern internet, John Gilmore, famously remarked that the net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.

Matthew Mott

10 Mar 2017 · 6 min read