World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee calls for internet bill of rights to safeguard privacy
Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, has reiterated his concerns regarding the threat to internet freedom and called for the creation of an internet bill of rights to protect privacy.
The computer scientist, who invented the web 25 years ago, has previously stressed that internet freedom is under threat and that it must be safeguarded from being controlled by governments or large corporations.
Berners-Lee made this latest plea at the Web We Want festival on the future of the internet in London yesterday, where he said the “power to abuse” the open internet has become too tempting for both governments and big companies, as reported by the Guardian.
He said: “If a company can control your access to the internet, if they can control which websites they go to, then they have tremendous control over your life.
“If a government can block you going to, for example, the opposition’s political pages, then they can give you a blinkered view of reality to keep themselves in power,” the Guardian reported.
Berners-Lee is director of the World Wide Web Consortium, a body which develops guidelines for the development of the internet.