Originally Appeared: City A.M. on January 4, 2019
The same tools that allow information to pass from one user to another, or to join a business with a customer on the other side of the world, can be put to bad uses by bad actors.
But amid the torrents of negative headlines about issues like online safety and the use and misuse of personal data, one stubborn fact refuses to change: the public still loves the internet and the way it enriches lives, strengthens the economy, and provides innovations that we end up taking for granted mere months after they seemed like impossible novelties.
Listen to some commentators, and you would guess that the public is desperate for regulation of the internet industry. However, if you actually ask the British people, they say that the internet has brought massive benefits to society and their own personal lives.
They also believe that the government should do everything possible to encourage the development of the British internet industry in the future – not hobble it, or treat it as a menace to be controlled.
