World Wide Web 28th anniversary: Inventor issues warning

The man who invented the World Wide Web 28 years ago today has announced that he wants to save it.

Tim Berners-Lee wrote the blueprint for what would become the World Wide Web, and said he is alarmed at what has happened to it in the last year.

In a statement issued from London, Berners-Lee said: ‘Over the past 12 months, I’ve become increasingly worried about three new trends which I believe we must tackle in order for the web to fulfill its true potential as a tool which serves all of humanity.’

He identified three key issues he finds the most concerning about the state of our internet affairs.

First, he is concerned with the amount of personal information being distributed on the web. Many sites allow for free content in exchange for personal information on site users, which we usually allow in the fine print of the terms & conditions pages we blindly agree to.

Another concern is the rampant distribution of false information, or ‘fake news’.

Given the fact that most people obtain their news from a small number of sites and often fall victim to ‘clickbait,’ it’s incredibly easy for misinformation to become widespread.

His third area of warning lies in the political advertisement on the internet, which is often veiled and littered with inaccuracies.

He also expressed his concern about governments monitoring citizens internet usage, and alluded to WikiLeaks’ disclosure of CIA surveillance documents, saying that he thinks ‘watching everyone, all the time is simply going too far’.

Berners-Lee said: ‘It creates a chilling effect on free speech and stops the web from being used as a space to explore important topics, like sensitive health issues, sexuality and religion.’

He submitted the open proposal for the Web in 1989, and imagined that it would be an open platform for anyone in any place to collaborate and share information and opportunities freely.

However, his hopes have been shaken by high-profile hacks and the dissemination of fake news through robots and data science, reported USA Today.

Berners-Lee hinted at the WikiLeaks bombshell, which show that the CIA used sophisticated hacking tools to turn devices such as smart phones and tablets into surveillance devices.

He shared his concerns about what they consider to be an assault on privacy and cyber security, but has not stated how he plans to ‘save’ the World Wide Web.

Berners-Lee is just one in a vast community of high-profile technologists who have said that an expansion of these policies could eviscerate the privacy, and even safety, of billions of people, according to USA Today.

He did, however, offer some encouragement for the future and highlighted the benefits that social media use have brought around the world.

He is a part of the Web Foundation group, which has launched a five-year plan to research further the issues marring the web, and enact policy to improve them.