Berners-Lee warns of erosion of internet freedoms ‘on the sly’ following PRISM revelations
Web pioneer Sir Tim Berners-Lee has issued a dark warning that we may be sleepwalking toward state and commercial interests wresting control of the internet for their own ends.
Speaking in the wake of revelations surrounding US government spying on global web users through Google, Facebook, Apple and others, Berners-Lee said: “If you can control [the internet], if you can start tweaking what people say, or intercepting communications, it's very, very powerful...it's the sort of power that if you give it to a corrupt government, you give them the ability to stay in power forever.
“Unwarranted government surveillance is an intrusion on basic human rights that threatens the very foundations of a democratic society. I call on all web users to demand better legal protection and due process safeguards for the privacy of their online communications, including their right to be informed when someone requests or stores their data.
“Over the last two decades, the web has become an integral part of our lives. A trace of our use of it can reveal very intimate personal things. A store of this information about each person is a huge liability: Whom would you trust to decide when to access it, or even to keep it secure?”
In response to these issues Berner-Lee called on responsible governments to protect the neutrality and independence of the web to maintain an open web with organisations whick operate the web kept at ‘arm’s length’ from government.