Tim Berners-Lee and Individual Freedom

Katrina Brooker interviewed Tim Berners-Lee, the scientist who helped develop the standards of the Internet. Now that half of the world population has some type of Internet access, Berners-Lee expresses anger at how the technology has been used:

...the Web had failed instead of served humanity, as it was supposed to have done, and failed in many places. [The increasing centralization of the Web] ended up producing—with no deliberate action of the people who designed the platform—a large-scale emergent phenomenon which is anti-human.

Berners-Lee expresses concern about the growth of both Internet firms and government agencies that eliminate individual's privacy or promote hidden agendas.

Berners-Lee is now working on technologies for decentralizing information, including software called Solid. Disciples are developing protocols to create a Web of Trust, such as ActivityPub.

-DD