Latest Tim Wu Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• Hitler understood the demagogues' essential principle to teach or persuade is far more difficult than to stir emotion.

  Tim Wu

  Principles, Essentials, Emotion

  Source: www.npr.org

• There's always going to be a tradeoff between trolling and anonymity, and I guess that's the way life will be. And you can manage it, but you can't cure it.

  Tim Wu

  Way, Cures, Manage

  Source: www.npr.org

• There is this inherent human instinct that the usual way you control trolling is you force people to use their real identities. So there's less trolling on Facebook, for example.

  Tim Wu

  Real, People, Identity

  Source: www.npr.org

• There's a problem which is when you're trapped in your own identity and everything is really you, then you feel less freedom to sort of explore who you want to be. So I think it's kind of something we're stuck with as long as humans are the way we are.

  Tim Wu

  Thinking, Long, Identity

  Source: www.npr.org

• There's always people - it doesn't take many - who have a different psychological makeup than most of us who really get joy out of provoking. They don't always believe the things they say, they just like to watch people go crazy. You know, I knew people like that in elementary school - bullies of one kind or another.

  Tim Wu

  Crazy, Believe, School

  Source: www.npr.org

• You know, the only reason net neutrality is controversial is because it's complicated.

  Tim Wu

  Neutrality, Complicated, Controversial

  Source: www.npr.org

• Trolling is an ancient problem. It's been around as long as there has been media.

  Tim Wu

  Media, Long, Problem

  Source: www.npr.org

• Net neutrality is the principle that the service providers who control or access, who own the pipes, should not favor some content over another. It's, you know, an even playing field for stuff on the Internet, and, you know, I think it's very important to the medium that it have a rough quality among contents. Everyone has their shot.

  Tim Wu

  Thinking, Important, Quality

  "How Free Web Content Traps People In An Abyss Of Ads And Clickbait". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, wncw.org. October 17, 2016.

• Right now it is illegal for a service provider to censor or block a site because they don't like it or to privilege someone who pays them extra money. So it's basically a level playing field. I think it was a great victory. It doesn't solve all the problems of our time, but I think we've gotten a much better place.

  Tim Wu

  Block, Thinking, Victory

  Source: www.npr.org

• Now, he doesn't control the media, but Donald Trump has been incredibly successful in having his face appear everywhere. You cannot go a day without seeing that face somewhere maybe 10 times.

  Tim Wu

  Successful, Media, Faces

  "How Free Web Content Traps People In An Abyss Of Ads And Clickbait". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, wutc.org. October 17, 2016.

• I want to say, however, one thing our media in America has done which didn't happen in other totalitarian states is it has very effectively stood up to Donald Trump who has obvious fascist tendencies and his - who's a temptation like all authoritarian figures to try to crush the media or make it obey him. As that - the media has, in fact, stood up to him and has refused to bow out or cower.

  Tim Wu

  Crush, Media, America

  Source: www.npr.org

• One thing that all the totalitarian states did was make the great leader's face everywhere.

  Tim Wu

  Leader, Faces, States

  Source: www.npr.org

• In fact, the big steps forward for advertising, especially after World War I were when government just began employing the tools of advertising for its own purposes to get people to join the army and other things.

  Tim Wu

  War, Army, Government

  Source: www.npr.org

• Hitler had this understanding that you speak to people's deepest, darkest emotions and give them voice that can be incredibly effective.

  Tim Wu

  Voice, People, Giving

  Source: www.npr.org

• More than anyone else, Adolf Hitler completely understood the union between government propaganda and between - and advertising, that they were in some ways the same thing.

  Tim Wu

  Government, Unions, Way

  Source: www.npr.org

• Take back the web because it is a situation that really isn't working for anyone.

  Tim Wu

  Situation

  Source: www.npr.org

• One thing I'll say about Hitler that many people don't realize - and I don't mean to besmirch the industry - but he did get his start, not only as an artist, but as an advertising man writing art for advertisements.

  Tim Wu

  Art, Writing, Mean

  "How Free Web Content Traps People In An Abyss Of Ads And Clickbait". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, ypradio.org. October 17, 2016.

• There's always going to be merchants who need to get their message out, but things have gone way too far.

  Tim Wu

  Needs, Gone, Way

  "How Free Web Content Traps People In An Abyss Of Ads And Clickbait By EDITOR • OCT 17, 2016". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, wmra.org. October 17, 2016.

• You know, it's so funny that the internet's become a series of traps where you do sort of innocent things like give your name or address or indicate a preference, I like this thing, and then therefore you open yourself up to a deluge of advertising based on those stated preferences.

  Tim Wu

  Names, Giving, Addresses

  "How Free Web Content Traps People In An Abyss Of Ads And Clickbait". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, wjsu.org. October 17, 2016.

• The Holy Grail of advertising has always been advertisement that people want to watch, which occasionally happens. You know, the Super Bowl, people sit there and watch the advertisements. Some print advertising is very beautiful.

  Tim Wu

  Beautiful, People, Holy Grail

  "How Free Web Content Traps People In An Abyss Of Ads And Clickbait". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, wncw.org. October 17, 2016.

• When you decide to like something, I mean, you may feel you're sort of innocently putting out your preferences, but actually you're delivering something of enormous value, which is indicating that, you know, you'd essentially like to be advertised to by this company.

  Tim Wu

  Mean, May, Preference

  Source: www.npr.org

• I think that's been really the key, the idea of trying to harness social capital for selling purposes. That we've let this happen so easily without clearly getting something in exchange is kind of amazing to me.

  Tim Wu

  Thinking, Keys, Ideas

  Source: www.npr.org

• Google - and some of the other sites, YouTube and, you know - Google has an amazing search engine. The map product is incredible. So there's a sort of exchange when you put up with a bunch of ads. Facebook basically gives you access to your friends who, in theory, you had access to already. So sometimes I don't really understand the deal, but I guess it makes it slightly easier. So that's their contribution.

  Tim Wu

  Giving, Google, Maps

  Source: www.npr.org

• Every time you click on a like button on another site, you've told Facebook that you're doing that. And so therefore advertisers know who their fan base is.

  Tim Wu

  Buttons, Fans, Site

  "How Free Web Content Traps People In An Abyss Of Ads And Clickbait". "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, listen.sdpb.org. October 17, 2016.

• Facebook, when it began, like Google, was very resistant to advertising. They knew, like all - Mark Zuckerberg, like all good engineers, knew that advertising makes the product worse. But, you know, over time, they've been forced to increase the advertising load more and more and more. And the way they advertise is they - it's subtle but they know everything, you know, about everybody on the site.

  Tim Wu

  Zuckerberg, Google, Way

  Source: www.npr.org