Web guru Sir Tim’s fears over online ‘fake news’
THE creator of the World Wide Web has said he is ‘increasingly worried’ about the spread of fake news online – and the misuse of personal data by websites.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee is working on an urgent ‘five-year strategy’ in response to growing fears over the misuse of his invention.
Exactly 28 years after he launched the web, he intends to tackle the rise of so-called ‘fake news’ – feared to be affecting election results.
The 61-year-old said that most people find their news through just a ‘ handful’ of social media sites and internet search engines, which are paid whenever someone clicks a link.
‘The net result is that these sites show us content they think we’ll click on – meaning that misinformation, or fake news, which is surprising, shocking, or designed to appeal to our biases, can spread like wildfire,’ he said in an open letter. ‘And through the use of data science and armies of bots, those with bad intentions can game the system to spread misinformation for financial or political gain.’
He also fears that political adverts – in the US and elsewhere – are being used in ‘unethical ways’ by pointing voters to fake news websites or to keep people away from the polls.
Citing last year’s US election, the inventor said: ‘Targeted advertising allows a campaign to say completely different, possibly conflicting things to different groups. Is that democratic?’ Sir Tim also said misuse of personal data is having a ‘chilling effect on free speech’. He called for greater protection laws and urged online giants Google and Facebook to ramp up their efforts to tackle fake news.
Sir Tim warned that firms and governments used data collection to ‘trample on our rights’, leading to the arrest and execution of online journalists in repressive regimes.
He now plans for the Web Foundation, which he founded in 2009, to work on the issues in a five-year strategy.
The Oxford University- educated inventor submitted his original proposal for the web on March 12 1989. He imagined his invention as an ‘open platform’ that would let ‘everyone, everywhere’ share information.