Web inventor has an ambitious plan to take back the net
And no.... It's not Al Gore.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee released an ambitious rule book for online governance — a bill of rights and obligations for the internet — designed to counteract the growing prevalence of such anti-democratic poisons as misinformation, mass surveillance and censorship.
The product of a year’s work by the World Wide Web Foundation where Berners-Lee is a founding director, the “ Contract for the Web ” seeks commitments from governments and industry to make and keep knowledge freely available — a digital policy agenda true to the design vision of the 30-year-old web.
The contract is non-binding, however. And funders and partners in the endeavor include Google and Facebook, whose data-collecting business models and sensation-rewarding algorithms have been blamed for exacerbating online toxicity.
“We haven’t had a fairly complex, fairly complete plan of action for the web going forward,” Berners-Lee said in an interview. “This is the first time we’ve had a rule book in which responsibility is being shared.”
For instance, the contract proposes a framework for protecting online privacy and personal data with clearly defined national laws that give individuals greater control over the data collected about them. Independent, well-resourced regulators would offer the public effective means for redress. Current laws and institutions don’t measure up to that standard.
Amnesty International just released a report charging that Google and Facebook’s business models are predicated on the abuse of human rights.
Berners-Lee nevertheless says that “having them in the room is really important.” He said both companies had approached the foundation seeking participation.
“We feel that companies and governments deserve equal seats at the table and understanding where they’re coming from is equally valuable,” he said. “To have this conversation around a table without the tech companies, it just wouldn’t have the clout and we wouldn’t have ended up with the insights.”
The nonprofit foundation’s top donors include the Swedish, Canadian and U.S. governments and the Ford and Omidyar foundations.
One of its biggest challenges is the growing balkanization of the internet, with national governments led by China, Russia and Iran exerting increasing technical control over their domestic networks, tightening censorship and surveillance.
“The trend for balkanization is really worrying and it’s extreme at the moment in Iran ,” said Berners-Lee. A strong government exhibits tolerance, the computer scientist added, for “other voices, opposition voices, foreign voices to be heard by its citizens.”
So how to prevent governments from restricting internet access at their borders?
One approach, said Berners-Lee, could be financial pressure. Multinational lenders could condition lower interest rates, for example, on a nation’s willingness to let information flow freely on its domestic network.
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What a disaster has been made of what should have been a slam dunk positive on societies ability to learn, but, as usual, nefarious meddaling rewards those who would so to indoctrinate, as opposed to educate, as ain't we all Sewer Grate Again, here in America with some Broad
spectrum sun ,
eclipsed by the screening lefft open for so much to fly in
the face of reason
No matter how much lipstick you put on the pig of censorship, it's still a pig, and it's still censorship.
They can write all the lies they want, as long as it is called out as such.
i did not mention censorship
"The contract is non-binding "
So what does the " Dishwasher " do ?
No way. The internet should not be controlled. In fact I would rather go the opposite direction and decentralize it even further via block chain. I don't want to see the vast resources of the internet filtered to me by somebody who thinks they know what I need to see.
As a subscriber to much that is lost and tossed your way, why am i not surprised ?
Bald face LIES are commonplace today thanks to venues like the internet, the GOP, and the potUS.
Maybe we need to call those LIES OUT, cause stupid people believe too many of them, and HAVE and WILL ACT OUT ON THEM.
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Like here, sources need to be able to be confirmed and backed up by some sort of standard, as we see so many deceived, hard to be believed, but happening right in front of us each and every sad day.
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I'm pretty sick up and fed of ignorance ruling myself, as all should be.
So you're saying that only left wingers should be allowed to lie and say untrue things??
comprehension disability ?
Did anyone actually read the article or did you just go to your talking points?
Yes I did and I like the goal of what they are trying to achieve, I just don't like how they are going about it. I don't want governments in charge of my privacy and information. Block chain accomplishes all of this using a decentralized peer to peer system that is highly encrypted and can not be controlled by any one organization or entity. China for example would not be able to control what is available through the block chain as they can with their current setup. Privacy is protected as every transaction is encrypted. I feel like our government already uses our news media and basically dictates the content behind the scenes, I don't want to give them the power to dictate the content of our internet too! I don't live in communist China for a reason. Content should be free, as in not owned or governed by anyone, but the internet does need improvement in security and privacy big time.
Here is a good read for those not familiar with blockchain:
https://blockgeeks.com/guides/what-is-blockchain-technology/