Berners-Lee is concerned about the collection of personal data that many websites and platforms do in exchange for “free” services: as users lose access to their data, they also lose out on the potential benefits of controlling and sharing it elsewhere. Moreover, he argues that data collection is going too far, creating a chilling effect on free speech.
Berners-Lee also addresses the spread of misinformation online: as people’s use of web is becoming more and more centralised to only a handful of social media sites, this increases the chances for misinformation to spread “like wildfire”. Data collection on these platforms also permits political advertising that is more targeted than ever, raising question about its potential to affect the democratic process.
The Web foundation, which Berners-Lee founded, will be working on these issues as part of its five year strategy [2].
