The design flaw in Sir Tim’s gift to us

Thomas Jefferson held “that knowledge is power, that knowledge is safety, and that knowledge is happiness”. When, in 1989, the computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee created the ultimate knowledge-sharing tool — the worldwide web — he shared this credo.

Like Sir Tim, most thought the web would support the democratic principle of distributing power. But in 2018 the internet appears to serve two client types best: totalitarian regimes and the powerful “moneyed corporations”.

Sir Tim’s idea was to improve information sharing between scientists, using a niche platform called the internet. He made the source code available so anyone could publish and read a web page, ensuring the internet would be decentralised and serve all users equally. It was a runaway success — 4 billion people are now online.

For all the concerns about “fake news”, freedom of speech is more secure for the web’s existence. Millions have a means to express themselves, make common cause and mitigate the effects of the tyranny of the majority. But there was a design flaw. Web users do not own the data generated by their online behaviour. This knowledge has been vacuumed up and is stored on the servers of a few — as a result — very powerful corporations.

Facebook was quick to exploit this system weakness and Jefferson’s philosophical legacy — the public’s sense that knowledge is safety and happiness. First, it persuaded users to share a lot of information on their profiles. Then it allowed Cambridge Analytica access to 80-million profiles before the 2016 US election. Data protection legislation is now blunting the information-gathering tools of corporations such as Facebook and Google. But user data remains on their servers, and with it enormous political risk and economic power.