Tim Berners-Lee: we must regulate tech firms to prevent 'weaponised' web
Tim Berners-Lee: we must regulate tech firms to prevent
'weaponised' web
The inventor of the world wide web warns over
concentration of power among a few companies ‘controlling which ideas are
shared’
Tim Berners-Lee: ‘What was once a rich selection of blogs
and websites has been compressed under the powerful weight of a few dominant
platforms.’
By Olivia Solon Sun 11 Mar 2018 20.05 EDT
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web, has
called for large technology firms to be regulated to prevent the web from being
“weaponised at scale”.
“In recent years, we’ve seen conspiracy theories trend on
social media platforms, fake Twitter and Facebook accounts stoke social
tensions, external actors interfere in elections, and criminals steal troves of
personal data,” Berners-Lee wrote in an open letter marking the 29th anniversary
of his invention.
These problems have proliferated because of the
concentration of power in the hands of a few platforms – including Facebook,
Google, and Twitter – which “control which ideas and opinions are seen and
shared”.
“What was once a rich selection of blogs and websites has
been compressed under the powerful weight of a few dominant platforms,” said
the 62-year-old British computer scientist.
These online gatekeepers can lock in their power by
acquiring smaller rivals, buying up new innovations and hiring the industry’s
top talent, making it harder for others to compete, he said.
Google now accounts for about 87% of online searches
worldwide. Facebook has more than 2.2 billion monthly active users – more than
20 times more than MySpace at its peak. Together, the two companies (including
their subsidiaries Instagram and YouTube) slurp up more than 60% of digital
advertising spend worldwide.
Although the companies are aware of the problems and have
made efforts to fix them – developing systems to tackle fake news, bots and
influence operations – they have been built to “maximise profit more than
maximise social good”.
“A legal or regulatory framework that accounts for social
objectives may help ease those tensions,” he said.
Aligning the incentives of the technology sector with
those of users and society at large, he argued, will require consulting a
diverse group of people from business, government, civil society, academia and
the arts.
Berners-Lee warned of “two myths” that “limit our
collective imagination” when looking for solutions to the problems facing the
web: “The myth that advertising is the only possible business model for online
companies, and the myth that it’s too late to change the way platforms operate.
On both points we need to be a little more creative,” he said.
“I want the web to reflect our hopes and fulfill our
dreams, rather than magnify our fears and deepen our divisions,” he said.
The open letter coincides with a significant milestone:
2018 is the first year that more than half of the world’s population will be
online.
This still leaves a gaping “digital divide” that
exacerbates existing inequalities: you are more likely to be offline if you are
female, poor, or live in a rural area or a low-income country.
“To be offline today is to be excluded from opportunities
to learn and earn, to access valuable services, and to participate in
democratic debate,” Berners-Lee said. “If we do not invest seriously in closing
this gap, the last billion will not be connected until 2042. That’s an entire
generation left behind.”
Two years ago, the UN declared internet access to be a
basic human right on par with clean water, shelter, food and electricity.
However, in many places, getting online is prohibitively expensive – the cost
of 1GB of mobile broadband in Malawi is more than 20% of the average monthly
income. In Zimbabwe, it is nearly 45%.
The open letter comes a year after Berners-Lee called for
tighter regulation of online political advertising, which he said was being
used in “unethical ways”.
Since then, representatives from Facebook, Twitter and
Google have been hauled in front of Congress to answer questions over the
extent to which their platforms were used in a multi-pronged Russian operation
to influence the 2016 presidential election.
All three admitted that Russian entities bought ads on
their sites in an attempt to skew the vote. Russians posed as Americans to buy
ads on Facebook pushing divisive messages focusing on swing states. They also
spent tens of thousands of dollars on ads to spread disinformation across YouTube
and Google. On Twitter, swarms of bots helped promote fake news stories.
All three companies have since announced measures to
improve transparency over who is buying political ads on their platforms and
what messages they are promoting.
Berners-Lee has always maintained that his creation was a
reflection of humanity – the good, the bad and the ugly. However, his vision to
create an “open platform that allows anyone to share information, access
opportunities and collaborate across geographical boundaries” has been
challenged as the web has become more centralised.
“I’m still an optimist, but an optimist standing at the
top of the hill with a nasty storm blowing in my face, hanging on to a fence,”
he told the Guardian in November. “We have to grit our teeth and hang on to the
fence and not take it for granted that the web will lead us to wonderful
things.”
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