SOPA/PIPA was a very, very successful defeat thanks to millions of people who got together and called their reps and centers. Wikileaks got a hold of one of the early drafts and the EFF has a really good download on all the things that are wrong with it. It has the potential to stifle freedom of speech, it has the potential to curb innovation… Something as global and powerful as the open internet getting ham-fisted by undemocratic treatment, like we’re seeing from these closed-door meetings, is incredibly infuriating. The Trans-Pacific Partnership basically wants to strong-arm absurd intellectual property requirements among, what? A dozen nations? And it's all done behind closed-doors, without any public discussion, without any anything. What do you think about the TPP?Īlexis: It's ridiculous. The newest iteration of that is the TPP -a twelve-country alliance to enforce American intellectual property ideals. But it feels like every couple of months, a new country or a new alliance is trying to pass a bill that will somehow censor the web. VICE: You've been very outspoken about internet freedom. I got a few minutes to sit down and talk with him about open internet, the TPP, Reddit and Aaron Swartz after he got off stage and just before he started signing books. Besides telling his back story and offering advice during his hour-long talk, Alexis also made an effort to appeal to the crowd by describing Waterloo as a cutting-edge place for research and startups (which is why it's one of his few Canadian stops), making a Rob Ford joke, and poking fun at the University of Toronto. Ohanian is traveling the continent to speak with students, while promoting his new book about how the internet can change the world without the help of existing powers: Without Their Permission. Alex Ohanian standing in front of Lorde Ford.Īlexis Ohanian is a lot taller than I expected him to be, because for whatever reason I presume internet innovators to be of average or below average height-and whether it was deliberate or the result of some cosmic, happy accident, he also wears upvote-orange and downvote-blue checkered shirts.Ohanian, a co-founder of Reddit who’s also a notable internet freedom activist, stopped by the University of Waterloo last Friday as part of his 77-stop university and college campus tour.
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