Tim Berners-Lee, the English computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web back in 1989, was speaking before the Web We Want Festival in London’s Southbank Centre, when he expressed his concern over the UK government re-introducing a more invasive version of the ‘snooper’s charter’ – which gives the law enforcement agencies more power than ever to spy on the country’s citizens.
When the creator of the World Wide Web warns you about something that’s related to the Internet, you better listen to what he has to say.
For developing countries, like India, he had another message. Berners-Lee warned about attempts to improve internet access around the world by offering cut-down versions of the web, such as Facebook’s Internet.org project.
Users should “just say no” to such proposals, he said.
Berners-Lee is one of the pioneer voices in favour of Net Neutrality, and has expressed the view that ISPs should supply “connectivity with no strings attached,” and should neither control nor monitor customers’ browsing activities without their expressed consent. He advocates the idea that net neutrality is a kind of human network right.
“Threats to the Internet, such as companies or governments that interfere with or snoop on Internet traffic, compromise basic human network rights.”
h/t The Guardian
