Freedom has always been a hot topic. From Martin Luther King fighting for equal rights in America, to the NSA spying on internet users without permission. We demand freedom.

Aaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit and inventor of RSS, had a huge voice on the net. With millions listening to his every word, he turned to fighting for what he believed in. Freedom of Information. As an activist for social justice, Swartz challenged the US Government over the bill ‘SOPA’ (Stop Online Piracy).

This bill was aimed at stopping online piracy in a way which increased access to what the government could see what people were looking at and how they were looking at it. Aaron, like many others saw this as wrong and wanted to put an end to the corruption that was beginning on the web. He dedicated his life to fighting for Net Neutrality.

Net Neutrality is the idea that ISP (Internet Service Providers) and Governments should treat all user’s with internet equality. They should not be discriminated for the way they communicate, method they access the internet, location, user, site, content or application.

The idea that companies such as Facebook, Google and Netflix with millions to spend on beating the competition and maintaining the top sites through corrupt payments to ISP’s is wrong. I feel that the web should be free-for-all just as it was intended to be. Sir Tim-Berners Lee released the internet to the world in 1989. Instead of selling it for millions and there being loads of small ‘Internet’s’… he created one system for all to use and gave it to the world for free.

Aaron Swartz, a friend of Tim’s, took inspiration from Tim’s attitude to life to give back and instead of selling RSS or over-powering Reddit with ads, we wanted to give back. RSS allowed people to get information, Reddit allowed people to have a say through User Genertaed Content (UGC) and his work fighting SOPA/PIPA and the US Governemtn for social justice and freedom of information is an extension to allowing people to have a say. Allowing the world to be free, not controlled by big cooperations and government.

‘The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz’ a documentary by Luminant Media, Tells the story of Aaron and how he paid the ultimate price for Internet Freedom. His Life.

Tom.