The "father" of the Web, Tim Berners-Lee, warns that the democratic nature of the internet is threatened by the spread of surveillance and censorship
The creator of the World Wide Web, British Sir Tim Berners-Lee, warned that the democratic nature that has characterized the internet so far is at risk from "a surging wave of surveillance and censorship.".
However, Greece, which is in 26th place in the Web Index for 2013, is considered one of the countries where the internet is par excellence free and open for the expression of opinions.
94% of countries lack adequate oversight of government "interference" on the internet, while 30% of states block or filter political content on the internet, according to the new annual report by the World Wide Web Foundation, which Sir Tim himself created.
The report concludes, according to the BBC, that the current legal framework for internet surveillance by government agencies needs immediate change.
On the other hand, as Sir Tim Berners-Lee pointed out, "one of the most encouraging findings of the annual report is that the Web and social media are increasingly encouraging people to organize, take action, and try to expose injustices in every region of the world.".
The famous Briton spoke of a "threat to democracy" and the "need to protect fundamental rights to privacy, expression of opinion and assembly online.".
He also said that the efforts of the secret services to breach online encryption systems are "terrible and stupid" and, therefore, called for better control over the British GCHQ and the American NSA, which systematically intercept online data.
According to the World Wide Web Foundation report, in 80% of countries, led by Sweden and Norway, citizens show interest in resisting the loss of democracy on the internet.
Greece is ranked 26th in the global ranking of the Foundation's "Web Index 2013". Our country is rated with 80 points in the "Freedom and Openness" subcategory of the internet, with one of the best performances worldwide (in comparison, the USA is rated with 71 and the UK with 73.5), which gives it 12th place worldwide in this subcategory.
Source: protothema.gr
