The computer scientist credited with inventing the World Wide Web said Thursday that affordable access to the Internet should be recognized as a human right.
Tim Berners-Lee, who launched the Web in 1990, made the remarks as he released his World Wide Web Foundation’s latest report tracking the Internet’s global impact, the Associated Press reported.
Berners-Lee said the Internet can help tackle inequality, but it needs privacy rights and free speech to accomplish that. But his latest report found pretty dismal results worldwide on those two fronts.
The Web Index found that laws preventing mass online surveillance are weak or nonexistent in more than 84 percent of countries. It also found that nearly 40 percent of surveyed countries were blocking sensitive online content to a “moderate or extreme degree.” About half of all Web users live in countries that severely restrict their rights online.
And an estimated 4.4 billion people still have no access to the Internet, the Web Index said.
“It’s time to recognize the Internet as a basic human right,” Berners-Lee said. “That means guaranteeing affordable access for all, ensuring Internet packets are delivered without commercial or political discrimination, and protecting the privacy and freedom of Web users regardless of where they live.”
President Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and bipartisan groups of congressmen have echoed this statements in speeches, but very little action has been taken.
Even more privacy protections were lost this week with restrictions to the NSA spying program removed in the government spending bill for 2015.
