It has to be said: the cat pictures might not be enough. The internet definitively sucks sometimes. It’s a willing and fertile host to our most objectionable prejudice, anger and desire; an open marketplace for exploitation, child porn and illicit drugs and weapons. It provides a container for our greed, impatience and emotional evasiveness, and its liberating potential often feels like a false promise buried in a much larger mountain of disconnection, voyeurism and social media-fuelled narcissism.

Even the feelgood and useful bits are compromised – our tracked behaviour is sold to advertisers, while security agencies like the NSA have been found to spy extensively on … well, almost everybody.

In that light, is it blind and foolish to defend the internet – or does idealism provide a corrective vision? What gives this incredible technological structure its potency? What does the internet offer in terms of political freedom and social mobility, privacy and big data, and broadcasting and publishing and political change – and what does it cost us?

Blogger, science fiction author, Electronic Frontier Foundation special advisor and Boing Boing co-editor Cory Doctorow speaks with multitalented and beloved broadcaster, writer and director Alan Brough about whether we should really destroy the internet – or whether it instead needs our protection.

Your tweets:

‘We have yet to articulate a coherent way of thinking about security and the internet.’ @doctorow #askinterrobang pic.twitter.com/0gaaUEKlRQ

— The Wheeler Centre (@wheelercentre) November 28, 2015

Lack of disclosure with digital security leads to failure. ‘This is how every alchemist ends up drinking mercury.’ @doctorow #askinterrobang

— The Interrobang (@askinterrobang) November 28, 2015

.@doctorow is talking about very surprising ways in which industries co-opt governments to protect their IP, and generate $. #askinterrobang

— The Interrobang (@askinterrobang) November 28, 2015

Computers in everything: digital locks for protectionist practices, anti-circumvention rules feed the beast. Ergh @doctorow #askinterrobang

— Kate B. (@eyeofbast) November 28, 2015

"We haven't reached peak surveillance. There's plenty of ways the internet could be creepier. Like wifi Barbie." @doctorow #askinterrobang

— steph harmon (@stephharmon) November 28, 2015

Mass surveillance operates on the principle that watching another individual costs nothing. @doctorow #askinterrobang

— The Interrobang (@askinterrobang) November 28, 2015

We need to have spaces that are not ‘on the record’ in order to have social progress. @doctorow #askinterrobang

— The Interrobang (@askinterrobang) November 28, 2015

"When the Beatles co-opted other cultures it was called art. When Public Enemy co-opted the Beatles, it was theft" @doctorow #askinterrobang

— steph harmon (@stephharmon) November 28, 2015

‘I’m incapable of making predictions. I’m a science fiction author.’ @doctorow #askinterrobang

— The Interrobang (@askinterrobang) November 28, 2015

‘Our mission, if you care about this stuff, is to try and get other people to care before it’s too late.’ @doctorow on digital security.

— The Interrobang (@askinterrobang) November 28, 2015

Watching @doctorow continue to fight the good fight thanks to @askinterrobang. It’s depressing and empowering at the same time.

— Josh Kinal (@sealfur) November 28, 2015

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.