The Boy Who Could Change The World
Aaron Swartz’s story represents many of the questions raised by our modern age — philosophical questions about information, who controls it and the freedom of the web.[1] These questions are still relevant today.
Already at a very young age, Swartz was able to inspire many people with his intelligence and his incredible thrive to make the world a better place. He fought for an Internet grounded in community, creativity, and human rights. By co-creating platforms like RSS, reddit, Creative Commons, and the technology that became SecureDrop, he helped make information accessible. Perhaps more than anything, Swartz helped hundreds of thousands of people participate in the political processes that determine the laws we have to live under everyday.[2] In 2013, when he was 26 years old, Swartz took his own life. At the time, he was fighting federal prosecution for illegally downloading millions of pages of articles from the academic database JSTOR. He faced charges of wire and computer fraud and possibly years in federal prison. His complex and insightful life story is captured in the documentary ‘The Internet’s Own Boy’ directed by Brian Knappenberger.