Sir Tim Berners-Lee. CC image courtesy of Uldis Bojars.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, recognised as the inventor of the world wide web, has said provisions must be put in place to prevent the internet from being controlled by governments and big enterprises.
Berners-Lee was speaking after being awarded the first Queen Elizabeth prize for engineering alongside fellow web pioneers Robert Kahn, Vint Cerf and Louis Pouzin.
Commenting on the fallout from the Edward Snowden leaks, which revealed the extent of United States and United Kingdom surveillance on the internet, Berners-Lee said: “The original design of the web of 24 years ago was for a universal space, we didn’t have a particular computer in mind or browser, or language,” the Guardian reported.
“When you make something universal … it can be used for good things or nasty things … we just have to make sure it’s not undercut by any large companies or governments trying to use it and get total control.”
During the Queen’s presentation, she said: “The internet and the world wide web have brought the world and its people together in ways we could not have imagined 60, or even 30, years ago. And so, I have great pleasure in giving my name to this prize.”
