Inventor of World Wide Web drafts contract to 'save the internet'

Sir Tim Berners-Lee is credited with creating the World Wide Web in 1989 - the invention that changed modern life forever.

But now, more than 30 years on, he's less than optimistic about its future.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time, now I've decided I should turn it off," he told the BBC.

The British scientist submitted on March 12, 1989 his first proposal for what would be a revolutionary global technology, in the form a memo with a complex design of arrows, boxes, circles and bubbles, at the CERN physics research centre, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Not to be confused with the Internet, which is the network of globally interconnected computers, the World Wide Web is how people share information on the Internet.

Now, he says the revolutionary technology is no longer a 'force for good', arguing it has been polluted by misinformation, hate speech and the widespread gathering of personal data.

He points to the recent UK election controversy, where the Conservative Party changed its Twitter profile to masquerade as a fact-checking service during an election debate.

"That was really brazen... that was impersonation," he said. "Don't trust people who do that."

Twitter warned it would take 'decisive action' should the stunt be repeated, but Berners-Lee says the action is a symptom of an Internet heading towards a 'digital dystopia'.

He's drafted a 'Contract for the Web': a set of guidelines calling on governments and companies to respect data privacy, enshrine the right to access the Internet, crack down on fake news, and to rebuild trust in information shared online.

It's his plan to 'save the internet', and it already boasts Google, Microsoft and Facebook among its 80 signatories.

"(It's) a set of principles and it's a direction to move. It doesn't mean we expect people immediately to completely change," he said.

It also calls on individuals to build strong online communities, to create compelling content to add value to the Internet, and to fight for their rights online.

(Content and video syndicated via Reuters)

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