Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, says it is “too easy” for misinformation to spread on the Internet.
In a letter posted online Saturday, marking 28 years since Berners-Lee submitted his proposal that would lead to the creation of the world wide web, he outlined three trends that he finds concerning, including the spread of “fake news.”
“Today, most people find news and information on the web through just a handful of social media sites and search engines,” he wrote. “These sites make more money when we click on the links they show us. And, they choose what to show us based on algorithms which learn from our personal data that they are constantly harvesting.”
He continued: “The net result is that these sites show us content they think we’ll click on — meaning that misinformation, or ‘fake news’, which is surprising, shocking, or designed to appeal to our biases can spread like wildfire. And through the use of data science and armies of bots, those with bad intentions can game the system to spread misinformation for financial or political gain.”
In order to solve the issue, Berners-Lee said people need to “push back.”
He recommended fighting misinformation by “encouraging gatekeepers such as Google and Facebook to continue their efforts to combat the problem, while avoiding the creation of any central bodies to decide what is ‘true’ or not. We need more algorithmic transparency to understand how important decisions that affect our lives are being made, and perhaps a set of common principles to be followed.”
The proliferation of fake news has become a major issue, coming to prominence during the 2016 election, thanks in large part to sharing on social media sites like Facebook. The phenomenon has led to politicians on both sides of the aisle to complain that these misleading stories have been damaging. Both Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama blamed fake news, in part, for Clinton’s loss in the presidential election to President Trump.
Trump has made a habbit of declaring news outlets like CNN and the New York Times “fake news” for publishing unflattering stories about him and has alleged some outlets are making up stories using anonymous sources.
The two other trends Berners-Lee listed were the loss of control of peoples’ personal data and the need for more “transparency and understanding” in political advertising online, for which he said there is an urgent need to close the “internet blind spot.”
Berners-Lee said the Web Foundation will be working on many of these issues as part of its five year strategy, and urged people to help by putting pressure on companies and government to exact change or by making donations.
“I may have invented the web, but all of you have helped to create what it is today. All the blogs, posts, tweets, photos, videos, applications, web pages and more represent the contributions of millions of you around the world building our online community,” he said.
