Monitoring Desk<\/p>\n
The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has unveiled a plan to tackle data abuse and fake news.
\nIn an open letter to mark the web’s 28th anniversary, Sir Tim has set out a five-year strategy amid concerns he has about how the web is being used.
\nSir Tim said he wants to start to combat the misuse of personal data, which creates a “chilling effect on free speech”.
\nHe also called for tighter regulation of “unethical” political adverts.
\nThe British computer scientist said he wants the people who have helped develop the web with blogs, tweets, photos, videos and web pages to help come up with practical solutions to make a web “that gives equal power and opportunity to all”.
\nUsers are often unable to tell outlets what data they would not like shared, Sir Tim said. Terms and conditions were “all or nothing”.
\nSir Tim said he wants to work with companies to put “a fair level of data control back in the hands of people”.
\nHe also expressed concerns that government surveillance is going too far and stopping the web from being used to explore topics such as sensitive health issues, sexuality or religion.
\nSocial media sites and search engines must be encouraged to continue efforts to combat the problem of fake news, Sir Tim said. However, central bodies deciding what is true or not should be avoided, he added.
\nCertain algorithms can favour sensationalist information designed to surprise or shock users rather than reflect the truth and can “spread like wildfire”, Sir Tim said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Monitoring Desk The inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has unveiled a plan to tackle data abuse and fake news. In an open letter to mark the web’s 28th anniversary, Sir Tim has set out a five-year strategy amid concerns he has about how the web is being used. Sir Tim said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n