Manifesto for cyberspace

We, the digiboriginals, perceive a state of hostility towards cyberspace that reached a climax at the eG8. The neutrality on which our values are grounded have been strongly challenged under a false pretext. We have reached the point where the Internet must be protected from governments.

We have shaped a province far removed from culture into a vibrant city, whose wealth benefits all. We built cyberspace. We have built it bit after bit, manifesto after manifesto, lolcat after lolcat. There, we have our cathedrals and our bazaars. We have invented worlds, networks of social and informational systems that are second to none.

The cyberspace is not a new space to conquer. It does not exist to be colonized nor civilized.

The cyberspace is a space of civilization, and has been since its founding. This is an undeniable fact, because it is built and inhabited by men and women.

The Internet does not discriminate between Joe and Mark. It is not an egalitarian space. It breaks through barriers, yet these barriers were socially constructed. They are not in the network’s architecture.

We oppose the cyberspace changing into a space of surveillance.

We oppose states abandoning the protections they own their citizens.

We oppose states violating the right to privacy in the cyberspace.

We oppose modifying cyberspace’s architecture.

We oppose outdated copyright models becoming the norm for everything we share.

At a time when the end of humanity becomes a tangible hypothesis, more than ever we need a commons space where we can gather and solve the issues at hand. The cyberspace makes Tahrir squares and Puerta del Sol possible.

We cannot afford to lose our future – it is time to defend it.

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Photo Credits: FlickR CC  verbeeldingskr8
Translation: Enikao and Stefanie Chernow