In a letter marking the 32nd anniversary of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee warns of a growing digital divide online that threatens the future success of many young people. For those unfamiliar, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is credited with inventing the Internet navigation system known as the World Wide Web in 1989. Now, however, he believes that his invention falls short of its potential and that the dominance of the online giants is just a "fad" that will not last. In an interview with Reuters, Sir Tim Berners-Lee elaborated on this idea by saying: “I'm optimistic because we've seen some mainstream fads on the internet before…and then things change. The only healthy thing to think about is... things will speed up (and) keep speeding up. We are going through another dramatic change in the rate at which the world is changing. "
Internet as a fundamental right
As our lives have become increasingly digital and this has only been accelerated by the pandemic, a third of young people do not have access to the Internet and many more do not have the data, devices and reliable connection they need to harness the power of the web. According to UNICEF, only the top third of young people under the age of 25 have an internet connection at home, leaving 2.200 billion people without the stable access they need to learn online. To combat this, Sir Tim Berners-Lee believes that governments around the world must recognize Internet access as a fundamental right. In his open letter, he explained exactly what it would take, saying: “The Affordable Internet Alliance (A4AI), an initiative of the Web Foundation, has calculated that an additional investment of €428 billion over ten years would provide everyone with a broadband connection. quality. To put that in perspective, this equates to the equivalent of just €116 per person for the 3.700 billion people who remain offline today. By giving billions more people the tools to learn, earn and create, this investment for future generations would yield incredible returns in the form of economic growth and social empowerment. "As well as calling for internet access to be recognized as a basic right as seen in the last century, Sir Tim Berners-Lee is also working on a project called Solid that will allow users to control their own personal data on the to leave them in place in the hands of Facebook and other tech giants.Via Reuters