Tim Berners-Lee Wants Internet Bill of Rights

Tim Berners-Lee

The inventor of the world wide web has warned that the freedom of the internet is under threat by governments and corporations interested in controlling the web.

Tim Berners-Lee, the British computer scientist who invented the web 25 years ago, called on Saturday for a bill of rights that would guarantee the independence of the internet and ensure users’ privacy.

“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,” Berners-Lee said at the Web We Want festival on the future of the internet in London.[…]

Berners-Lee, 59, is director of the World Wide Web Consortium, a body which develops guidelines for the development of the internet.

He called for an internet version of the Magna Carta, the 13th century English charter credited with guaranteeing basic rights and freedoms.

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