Inventor of triple W alerted for crimes of his own Frankenstein

In an open letter published today, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the document with which Berners-Lee laid the foundation for the website, the British scientist warned that, just as cyberspace would become a public square, a library, a medical office, a store and many more, "He also created opportunities for fraudsters, gave voice to those who spread hatred and facilitated the commission of all kinds of crimes."

"At a time when articles on misuse of the Web dominate the news cycle, it is understandable that many people on the Web are generating fear and are not sure that It's really a positive force, "he wrote.

Berners-Lee identified among the three "sources of dysfunction" the current Web to "malicious and deliberate attempts, such as hacking, state-sponsored computer-driven attacks, criminal behavior and online harbadment".

Also at "Systems that, by design, create perverse incentives and sacrifice user interests, such as ad-based business models that commercially reward clickbait and viralization of misinformation".

Finally, to these "benevolent conceptions which, nevertheless and unintentionally, generate negative consequences, such as the tone and the atrocious and polarized quality of the current online discourse".

For example, in an interview published Tuesday by the newspaper BBC He said that if most people saw some of these issues as outside issues, people realized: "When Cambridge Analytica arrived, the elections were manipulated with the use of the information with which they contributed."

"I think that (the web) has been a positive force in the first 15 years and that it's just balancing for the moment," he said, noting that he would be back again optimistic if the correction of phenomena such as "the spread of misinformation" manages to distort this "dysfunctional future" of the Web.

In any case, he was considered optimistic because "new generations of young people are very active on issues such as privacy" and that there is "the ability and motivation to try to do what in both areas, namely: governments and enterprises. "

"And most importantly, citizens must hold businesses and governments accountable for the commitments they have made, and ask them to respect the Web as a global community whose citizens are the center," he said. he declares. The struggle for the Web is one of the most important causes of our time. "