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

Google to Fight for Internet Freedom with uProxy

Sharon Gaudin discloses that Google is developing a tool called uProxy which will allow people in nations where the Internet is censored to view what Americans see.

It appears from this announcement that American volunteers would provide proxy gateways to their own Internet service. If this is the case, the sharing of Internet service may be a violation of the terms of service with their Internet provider, since most agreements prohibit sharing a connection with others. Also, I would be concerned that governments which block or intercept/inspect Internet traffic might subject these gateways to denial of service (DDoS) attacks, overwhelming the American citizen's Internet connection. The DDoS would result in extremely heavy traffic for the local Internet provider, and might bring a university or corporate network to its knees.

There is also the moral question about an American's moral stance in providing an open link. If someone in a blocked country is downloading child pornography through an American's Internet connection, does the American have any moral or legal responsibility? And if only white listed Websites are allowed through the uProxy, then that is a degree of censorship as well....

-DD