The Web's Creator Thinks We Need a New One That Governments Can't Control (thenextweb.com)

The web has created millions of jobs, impacted nearly every industry, connected people, and arguably made the world a better place. But the person who started it all isn't exactly pleased with the way things have turned out to be. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the World Wide Web, believes that the way it works in the present day "completely undermines the spirit of helping people create." The Next Web reports: "Edward Snowden showed we've inadvertently built the world's largest surveillance network with the web," said Brewster Kahle, who heads up Internet Archive. And he's not wrong: governments across the globe keep an eye on what their citizens are accessing online and some censor content on the Web in an effort to control what they think. To that end, Berners-Lee, Kahle and other pioneers of the modern Web are brainstorming ideas for a new kind of information network that can't be controlled by governments or powered by megacorporations like Amazon and Google.The New York Times originally reported on this and has more details. (But it is also paywalled.)

Comments

Oh yeah?

[Bovius]

That's hilarious. You go right ahead and then come back and tell us your cool idea about a global infrastructure that can't be controlled by the organizations who build and maintain said infrastructure.

Re:Oh yeah?

[mysidia]

idea about a global infrastructure that can't be controlled by the organizations who build and maintain said infrastructure.

I think the idea is to render it all Opaque to the entities that control the infrastructure, so their ability to see and "Control" what happens is Reduced to Two options: Have everything Turned on, Or Turn everything Off.

The option of "Have everything turned on, but Delete or block access to data item X" will no longer exist.

Re:Oh yeah?

[Kjella]

Hrm - how long have governments, corporations, and cartels been trying to kill Bittorrent off again?

The government doesn't care that you download Game of Thrones or Justin Bieber, really they don't. It's half of "bread and circus" and a huge tech industry driver, despite the lip service they give the content industry. Share something really illegal on BitTorrent and you'll soon have cops knocking at your door. Or in your door. I'm sure you've heard of the four boxes of liberty, the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box and the ammo box. Conversely, those who seek to oppress don't really care unless one of those is threatened. If most people listen to mainstream media, they own the soap box. The first past the post system locks down the ballot box. The legal system keeps the jury's power a guarded secret. As for the ammo box, a few guns are no match for a para-military police.

Look at modern day authoritarian states, it's not the Soviet Union anymore where they try to keep totalitarian control. They've found it's completely pointless, for the most part the average person in China cares about the same things as in the US as they did in the Roman Empire, if they have a decent paycheck and having a good time they're not going to topple the government. Both the rise and fall of the Soviet Union came because life had turned to shit, while China's government seems rock solid and Tiananmen Square is now 25+ years ago. The individuals are like ants compared to the government, you don't really care what they do unless they're ganging up to threaten you.

Only an academic...

[argStyopa]

...could look at something that was conceived, paid for, and built by the US defense department and sigh "Don't you wish we could have this without all that pesky GOVERNMENT involvement?"

Corporations == Facism

[Tom]

or powered by megacorporations like Amazon and Google.

This.

Because while our governments are slowly turning fascist, corporations are facists. Think about it. Strict top-down control. No democracy or participation at any level (I'm talking about real participation, not token "we listen to your ideas" events). All in the name of superiority and expansionism.

If we want to have a free Internet, corporations are the real enemy.

Re:While you're at it, build in crime prevention

[Plus1Entropy]

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not. This argument is the same one that's always used when establishing a police state: "We need to violate your liberties in order to keep you safe from ."

The government can't keep you safe from hackers or terrorists, they just won't tell you that because they are stupid, liars, or stupid liars. Not only that, but if you look at history you are far more likely to be killed by a government than a terrorist.

Re:While you're at it, build in crime prevention

[Plus1Entropy]

People get robbed, scammed, kidnapped, and killed by drunk drivers all the time. The government only helps after the fact when it comes time to punish someone. But that's not what we're talking about here, we're talking about crime prevention.

Did the government prevent the Boston Bombing? No.
Did they need access to all of our browser history without warrants to catch the guys who did it? No.
Would access to all of our browser history have helped them prevent it? I doubt it.
Is it worth the price of giving up that much of our liberty and privacy? Absolutely not.