Tech Prodigy and Internet Activist Aaron Swartz Commits Suicide
Aaron Swartz, the brilliant young software programmer and Internet activist who inspired awe and reverence from some of the leading figures in the technology world, died in his Brooklyn apartment on Friday, his family said in a statement. New York City’s chief medical examiner ruled the death a suicide by hanging. Swartz was 26 years old.
A computer prodigy, Swartz co-authored an early version of the popular Internet RSS software at age 14 and would later become an early leader of Reddit, the social website that has become a locus of Internet activism. A passionate advocate for social justice, Swartz founded the group Demand Progress, which played a crucial role in convincing the U.S. Congress to back down from controversial anti-piracy legislation last year.
“Aaron’s insatiable curiosity, creativity, and brilliance; his reflexive empathy and capacity for selfless, boundless love; his refusal to accept injustice as inevitable—these gifts made the world, and our lives, far brighter,” his family said in a statement. “Aaron’s commitment to social justice was profound, and defined his life. He used his prodigious skills as a programmer and technologist not to enrich himself but to make the Internet and the world a fairer, better place.”
Aaron Swartz, the brilliant young software programmer and Internet activist who inspired awe and reverence from some of the leading figures in the technology world, died in his Brooklyn apartment on Friday, his family said in a statement. New York City’s chief medical examiner ruled the death a suicide by hanging. Swartz was 26 years old.
A computer prodigy, Swartz co-authored an early version of the popular Internet RSS software at age 14 and would later become an early leader of Reddit, the social website that has become a locus of Internet activism. A passionate advocate for social justice, Swartz founded the group Demand Progress, which played a crucial role in convincing the U.S. Congress to back down from controversial anti-piracy legislation last year.
“Aaron’s insatiable curiosity, creativity, and brilliance; his reflexive empathy and capacity for selfless, boundless love; his refusal to accept injustice as inevitable—these gifts made the world, and our lives, far brighter,” his family said in a statement. “Aaron’s commitment to social justice was profound, and defined his life. He used his prodigious skills as a programmer and technologist not to enrich himself but to make the Internet and the world a fairer, better place.”
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