The founder of the World Wide Web Tim Berners- Lee has deemed the web as a place facing the backlash of the destructive effects of threats that plague the online world. According to NDTV, the founder called on governments, companies, individuals to take part in a new policy called “Contract for the Web”, that aims to protect people’s rights and freedoms on the internet. Tim made this announcement in a talk at the opening of the Web Summit 2019, one of Europe’s largest tech event which is taking place in London.
What does this contract say?
The main principles promoted by this campaign are those that help the government, companies and citizens to improve the internet and revolt against the privacy concerns and political manipulation. According to The Telegraph, Berners-Lee said that this contract would outline “clear and tough responsibilities” for those with the power to make the Internet a better place. Till now, the contract includes nine principles called as “Magna Carta for the web”, which ask the government to ensure that all citizens can connect to the internet and that companies respect consumers privacy.companies will commit to developing technologies that ensure the web outs the need of the people first. It also hopes to make sure that the citizens also play an important role in developing the web by creating “rich and relevant content for everyone”. The whole contract will be published by May 2019, a time by which 50 per cent of the world will be online for the first time.
Big names already signing the contract.
More than 50 organisations have already signed this contract and more look to do so in the coming days. One of the early signatories to the contract was the social media platform Facebook. Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown was also one of the first people to add his signature. Time Berners-Lee has pinpointed one of the great human rights issues of our time, and his proposal deserves worldwide support, Gordon told the Guardian. Another big name who signed the contract was GOOGLE, who has been reportedly developing a censored version of its search engine but will not be able to do so once this contract is official. The two tech giants( Facebook and Google) have direct influence over nearly three-quarters of all internet traffic. Internet security firm Cloud Flare also put down their signature with the hope that they have to make the web delivers its promise. Another notable signature on the contract was that of the founder of the Afghan Girls Robotics Club, Roy Mahboob. Roy believes that this contract couldn’t have come at a better time for women and girls around the world to speak truth to power. He believes that the idea will be quite revolutionary.
Thoughts of the founder
Tim Berners- Lee invented the World Wide Web (Not the internet itself) as a way to exchange information but believes that it has deviated from the goals its founders had created it for. In his opening statement at the summit, Tim said that many things have gone wrong with the web. The fake news and problems with privacy have caused the manipulation of the people. Tim hopes that this contract will help set things right. “This is a contract to make web one which serves humanity, science, knowledge and democracy”, as reported by the Guardian. He goes on to say that this idea may seem to be spontaneous, but says that the internet has surprised us many times.”Times change”, he said.
The Web summit where Tim decided to make this announcement is one of the biggest tech events in the whole of Europe. Launched in Dublin, it was moved to Lisbon in 2016. The event will generate an estimated amount of 300 million euros in revenue.