Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales wants to rewrite this internet law

Wikipedia
founder campaigned against the EU proposals.
Getty

Business Insider

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has said there is one law relating
to the internet that he would completely rewrite.

Speaking to Business Insider after
being named in the UK Tech 100 ranking of the most
influential people in British tech, Wales said he would rip up
censorship laws in China.

“If it were completely up to me with absolute power, I would just
stick the US First Amendment into the Chinese system and require
that it be enforced appropriately,” Wales said.

He admitted this ambition is “a bit silly,” so at a minimum he
said there should be a proper legal process every time China
decides it is going to black out a website.

Wales continued: “In terms of a realistic dream, to say any time
you are going to block a website, there needs to be a true
process of independent judicial review.”

His intervention comes at a time when Google is drawing up plans
to launch a censored search engine in China having quit the
country in 2010. The company has confirmed the so-called Project
Dragonfly but said that the plans remain in their infancy.

Wales reminded Google that its experiences in China have not
always been positive and it is a hot button issue among staff.
This has proven to be the case in recent weeks, with at least one executive
quitting over Google’s ambitions.

“Google in the past had a lot of damage to their brand from
cooperating in China, a lot of damage to their employee morale
and as we know the Google employees seem to take very seriously
the ‘don’t be evil’ concept. They occasionally protest about
things with good impact I would say,” Wales said.