LONDON – Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, has said the dominance of internet giants is a “fad” that does not have to endure, adding that urgent change was needed to improve a digital divide in young people’s online access.
Berners-Lee, who invented the internet navigation system known as the World Wide Web in 1989, said he sensed “a feeling out there of restlessness, a feeling that we need to tip things over to change them”.
High-profile incidents such as a dispute between Facebook and Australia that led to the social network blocking news feeds in the country has led many citizens and governments to re-examine their relationships with giant internet and social media companies.
“I’m optimistic, because we’ve seen some dominant fads on the internet before … and then things change,” he said in an interview with Reuters, adding that people were pushing back against the use and abuse of personal data.
“[There’s] great awareness that things need to change.”
He said that a combination of government policy and tech could work together and help people regain control over their data and online lives.
Berners-Lee, 65, is working on a project called Solid, where people’s personal data is controlled by the user, rather than platforms like Facebook.
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But in a letter to coincide with the 32nd birthday of the World Wide Web, he warned of a growing digital divide which he said could threaten the chances of many young people, with one in three people aged between 15-24 globally having no access to the internet at all.
He said recognising the internet as a basic right, akin to how electricity was seen last century, was vital, especially in a world that is increasingly shaped by those with web access.
“The only sane thing to think is that … things are going to accelerate [and] continue to accelerate,” he told Reuters. “We’re going through another step-change in the speed at which the world is changing.”
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