Tim Berners-Lee Calls For Online Bill Of Rights

The Web’s creator, Tim Berners-Lee is using its 25th anniversary to call for an online Bill of Rights, or “Magna Carta” as he calls it.

During South by Southwest (SXSW) he was the first non-moderator to ask Edward Snowden a question and even before that Berners-Lee has been an avid supporter of internet rights and therefore, not a fan of government agencies like the NSA.

While speaking with The Guardian, Berners-Lee stated that the internet as we know it is under attack from corporations and governments. As a result, he feels that some sort of online Bill of Rights is needed in order to protect the Web from organizations that would try to abuse it.

Unless we have an open, neutral internet we can rely on without worrying about what’s happening at the back door, we can’t have open government, good democracy, good healthcare, connected communities and diversity of culture. It’s not naive to think we can have that, but it is naive to think we can just sit back and get it. – Tim Berners-Lee

The Magna Carta would be established to protect basic online rights that deal with privacy, free speech, and anonymity. All of these are currently under attack from organizations that would like to censor people, spy on them, and get rid of anonymity.

Although the Web that Berners-Lee would like to see is becoming an increasingly distant reality, he is hopeful that if members of the technology community actually stand up for these rights, they will be protected. However, if people remain passive, change will not occur.

One of the main things that the Web’s creator has continued to fight for is separating the US government from the internet so that it is not in control of domain names. As of right now, the US has the key to the primary domain database, something that does not make sense according to Berners-Lee, since the internet is a global service.