The free and open web faces real challenges. More than half the world’s population still can’t get online. For the other half, the web’s benefits come with too many risks: to our privacy, our democracy, our rights. That’s why we’re launching a global campaign to connected everyone to a web that works for people.
Our founder and web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee launched the campaign today at the Web Summit in Lisbon, announcing a new “Contract for the Web”. He shared starter principles for the contract, defining responsibilities that governments, companies and citizens each have to create a better web.
Now we’re calling for people to support these principles and get involved in a process to build them into a full Contract for the Web that will be published in May 2019 — the “50/50 moment” when more than half the world’s population will be online.
Speaking from the Web Summit, Berners-Lee said:
“The web is at a crucial point. More than half the world’s population remains offline, and the rate of new people getting connected is slowing. Those of us who are online are seeing our rights and freedoms threatened. We need a new Contract for the Web, with clear and tough responsibilities for those who have the power to make it better. I hope more people will join us to build the web we want.”
The Contract for the Web launched with high-level backing from over 50 organisations, including the French government, civil society organisations such as Access Now, Internet Sans Frontières, Project Isizwe, NewNow and the Digital Empowerment Foundation, as well as companies including Google, AnchorFree, Facebook and Cloudflare.
The push comes amid a growing awareness of the risks posed by digital technologies. We launched a report, The Case for the Web, as part of our campaign, outlining the urgent action needed to tackle these risks, covering issues including hate speech, data privacy, political manipulation and the centralisation of power online among a small group of companies. The report reveals that more than 1.5 billion people live in countries with no comprehensive law on personal data protection, leaving them particularly vulnerable to increasingly common incidents involving breaches of personal data.
Adrian Lovett, Web Foundation President & CEO said:
“For three decades we’ve seen the tremendous good that the web can deliver. As we work to expand its benefits to everyone, we need to make sure the web serves humanity, not the other way round. This can’t be accomplished by any one company or country alone. It’ll take all of us — debating, negotiating and collaborating to shape a better web.”
The ambition to build a Contract for the Web recognises that the challenges facing the web demand commitments from a range of actors, from the companies building web technologies to the policymakers defining laws and regulations, and the billions of people using the web every day.
You can join our campaign #ForTheWeb by signing up to back the Contract Principles at fortheweb.webfoundation.org.
If you would like to sign on behalf of your organisation or governments, please contact us at contract@webfoundation.org.
For more updates, follow us on Twitter at @webfoundation and sign up to receive our newsletter.
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Robert Rath
November 6, 2018
This has promise.
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Dieter BICKEL
November 7, 2018
I think, that this is a necessary initiative. How can we support it?
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Kerstin Kis Tatjana Eckardt
November 8, 2018
Since 1985 I'm researching in the scope of building a world wide network.A part of my technologies I named UD (Universal Directory), UC (Universal Currency) and UF (Universal File System).In the past 33 years nobody understood the necessity of those technologies.Now I'd like to cooperate with Tim Berrners Lee directly for the purpose of knowledge exchange.
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philip Marcus
November 8, 2018
IMO...The NWO and the Globalist SM Giants are now forwarding an Orwellian Big Brother type of Censorship, to control what we read, see, hear, write, and want to get to the point where they control what we think. Their collective influence was blatant during the Midterm Elections in the US, they, trying to stifle the Conservative voice, Spreading only what they thought the mass's should know, or leaving out essential information so that the citizens could make informed decisions. The reason they were allowed to get away with this, was because they used the excuse that they the SM Giants are private companies and can control everything that comes in and goes out from their services. I DISSAGREE 100% if you provide a platform of communication on the bases that you are promoting free speech and the public uses that platform for that purpose to express themselves then you become public domain ,and therefore censorship should and must be illegal, especially in the US.I SINCERLY BELIEVE THAT THESE SM GIANTS FACE BOOK, GOOGLE, YOU TUBE TWITTER AND THE LIKE must be and should broken up as per anti trust in favor of providers who believe in 100% free speech, no matter how abrasive or volatile. this after all is communication at its finest. Throttling free speech is in essence stunting the human desire to be heard, to understood to beshared, and any company who thinks they no better than the individual is criminal, and almost Sociopathic in its implication.
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Justin Jones
December 27, 2018
We provide a popular free advertising service. However, try as we may, we have been unable to get Google, Bing, etc. to provide a fair listing and ranking of the site, mysittingbourne.co.uk. We believe this is because these large corporations, who make money from advertising, do not like the idea of free advertising that anyone can afford. Ironically. I see that Google supports the aims of the Wold Wide Web Foundation!This is a form of censorship and unfair business practice by those large corporations who control the gateways of the Internet for their profit. How many other websites are being unfairly penalised by these search engine companies?For these and the other reasons stated in your charter, we support the World Wide Web Foundation in its mission to make a fairer, more open web.
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SARAH DOMINIQUE ORLANDI
January 23, 2019
Web is a utopia. But the word utopia contains a double meaning: ideal and false ideal.In the cultural sector, utopia as an ideal is accessibility to heritage. If the Museums broadcast content that allows different audiences to understand and appropriate culture, the utopian meaning of the web is that of an active relationship with the cultural content. In this sense, the web has immense potential: it is a space in which we can make exist what still does not exist.But utopia also has a negative meaning: that of a false ideal. Cultural institutions can simulate an intention to share widespread, transmit knowledge, and use web projects as fake faces. You can create or promote projects of "appearance", which does not correspond to any modification of the activities in situ and that do not imply an update of the museum mission. The web can also be a simulation space.From a positive point of view: everything can be done on the web.From a negative point of view: on the web you can pretend to do everything.
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Alberto Aguilar
January 29, 2019
Si, la innovación tecnológica iniciada por Sir Tim Berner-Lee, fue y es fascinante, sin embargo más de la mitad de la población mundial no tiene acceso a ésta plataforma digital. Creo que firmaré y donaré, para que ésto se vuelva realidad! Gracias Sir Tim Berner-Lee! Saludos DESDE MÉXICO!
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Ragul
February 20, 2019
Plus help me to join in world wide web and fight for you
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Josie Fontana
March 1, 2019
I work in the industry as a web editor and designer. I also have an interest in seeing a positive change for the future of the web.
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David Marsh
March 11, 2019
Free speech is fine but how do you balance the Dark Web against the free web. The concept of the web is fine and should be protected and enlarged to cover all the worlds population. The issues of web and site content are defined by the local laws and as such are human rights issues, comply with those and the web will be free of the need for muzzling or censorship.
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Ganesha Ghate
March 12, 2019
I anticipate that when all citizens of the world get good access to net it will make everybody's life more developed.
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Rui Simão
May 29, 2019
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, we discovered that when it comes to food or household products, consumers can expect the truth in advertising and basic standards of physical security to be met. In the middle of the last century, we decided that we liked big and fast cars - but not without seat belts and airbags. In each of these cases, we develop a set of standards and codify them into laws, corporate practices, and consumer behaviors.I believe that democracy requires informed and engaged communities. Our response to the digitization of our lives and our communities is not to shirk that responsibility, but to ask democracy how democracy can and will thrive in the digital age.It is a responsibility that we all share - especially corporations that are, in large part, shaping this new moment. It is time for them to rise to and be part of the effort to shape the rules, values, and norms that will allow democratic society to persist and thrive in the new century.I think we have a responsibility to build the things that give people a voice and help people connect and help people build communities ... I think we also have a responsibility to recognize that the tools are not always used for good things and we need to be there and be ready to mitigate all negative uses.I agree. That is why we, and others, are ready to work alongside those who take new opportunities - and challenges - seriously for our democracy.One of the most valuable things the Internet has brought us is new and improved access to practically everything. Students of all ages and abilities need not depend on conventional classrooms to learn. Students supplement classroom learning with Skype tutors or a review session with an online video tutorial. The Internet has helped democratize education. The WEB can be looked at as the means to Access, Express, Impress, and so much more. It is a storehouse of information and perhaps the biggest knowledge base that is easily accessible to just anyone in the world.
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