This post was originally published at contractfortheweb.org.
A year ago, Sir Tim Berners-Lee launched the Contract for the Web — the first ever global plan to make our online world safe and empowering for everyone.
Thousands of you answered Sir Tim’s call to join our fight for the web we want, with supporters from across the globe endorsing the Contract and committing to protecting the web as a force for good.
Since then, as our world continues to shift amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, we’ve taken time to reflect on the change we want to help create. One thing is clear: the Contract for the Web — and its roadmap to a better web — is now more critical than ever.
That’s why the Contract for the Web is set to enter a new phase. With a focus on accountability, best practices and policy design, the next steps for the Contract will drive forward sustained, coordinated action so that everyone, everywhere can connect, and so that we have the human-centered web we need to get through this crisis and be ready for the next.
We know the cost of this crisis has already been intolerably high. And yet, as bad as it has been, imagine a crisis like this without the web.
Right now, it’s unacceptable that far too many remain on the sidelines of our digital world. As this crisis has further underlined, the web is not a luxury. It is a lifeline — and access to it should be considered a basic human right.
And access to the web is just the beginning. Our online world must also be safe and empowering for everyone. But we know right now the web’s benefits come with many risks — to our privacy, our democracy, our health, and our security.
The Contract for the Web is a call to action for governments, companies and all of us as individual web users to build a better web.
A web that’s always on, affordable and available to everyone.
A web where privacy and data rights are respected and protected.
A web that promotes the best of humanity and challenges the worst.
The web we want.
The next steps for the Contract for the Web will turn those words into action to accelerate the building of a world where everyone can access a safe and empowering web.
We’ll build an online platform where the Contract for the Web community can show the public they’re making progress towards building a safe and empowering online world for everyone. That means that anyone — you, your friends and family, researchers and journalists — will be able to see how companies like Facebook, Google, Instagram, Amazon, Twitter and many more stack up against each other and how they’re honouring their commitments to the Contract.
We’ll work with partners to gather best practices and showcase this knowledge to create a “race to the top” — encouraging endorsers to lead by example. We’ll champion examples of clear privacy notices that a real human being can read and understand. We’ll showcase laws that promote online gender equality. We’ll share product solutions that tackle misinformation and prioritise accurate content. And we’ll point to policies and services that facilitate access to remote education.
We’ll create a Tech Policy Design Lab to bring citizens, policymakers, companies and technologists to the table to tackle the most challenging tech policy issues in the Contract. Through collaborative and evidence-driven workshops, we will work to produce more inclusive and constructive tech policy and push leaders of governments and companies around the world to adopt and implement these policies responsibly.
We’re beginning this work now. Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be in conversation with the Contract for the Web community as we continue to shape the tools that will drive this mission forward.
The launch of the Contract for the Web was the first step toward our ultimate goal: a world where everyone, everywhere is able to use the web to learn, earn, communicate and collaborate, free from fear of abuse, privacy violations and disinformation.
Last November, thousands of web users from across the globe spoke up and demanded action for the web we want by backing the Contract for the Web. Now, with our roadmap in place, we’ll enter our next phase of fighting tirelessly to drive real change for a better web for everyone.
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Tim Berners-Lee, our co-founder, gave the web to the world for free, but fighting for it comes at a cost. Please support our work to build a safe, empowering web for everyone.
Devi ki
November 11, 2020
Thank you
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Anna Korula
March 5, 2021
I am very pleased and encouraged to learn of this top-level, but inclusive of all concerned (literally) initiative to ensure the highest standards of proper use and decent behaviour is maintained at all times. I suggest that a human rights framework become the base on which all else is built. I say this as an human rights expert practitioner. While human rights stipulate (in law) that everyone is entitled to freedom of speech, thought and belief, there are concomittant duties and responsibilities to be observed by all as well. Also there are human rights (encoded in laws at the international and national levels) which also uphold freedom from discrimination, racism, religious intolerance part of the protected characteristics in national law, in the UK for example. Women's rights and child protection are also key, with prevention of discrimination and abuse of paramount importance. It is my hope therefore that international human rights laws (that almost all countries are States Parties to) is the basis on which a Code of Conduct for the Web is drafted, consulted on, and launched. All those who wish to use the internet should be required to sign on again, disclosing who they are, and undertaking to uphold the Code of Conduct. Of course implementation worldwide will be complex and there will have to be legally imposable penalties. With the development of AI/ML and improved algorithms however, I am confident it will become possible. I am now knowledgeable about the mechanics of the internet, so my next suggestion is premised on it being possible: It may be impossible to shut down the internet as too many industries and services are reliant on it running 24/7 I suppose. However, is it possible to keep the 'old internet' running for a brief period, till everyone who uses or plans to use the internet signs up to a 'new internet' and the Code of Conduct, even perhaps paying a one-off fee say, the equivalent of USD1/- or even less, to make it accessible to all (or a staggered fee if that is implementable so those who are wealthy pay more) to use the 'new internet'? This would raise money for the Foundation as well as Tim Berners-Lee, who I think really should also benefit personally for his incredible invention and generosity. Alternatively, there could be a newer model, with a built in code of conduct, that those who wish to use it sign up to. This might help clean out the haters and abusers once and for all perhaps. Or is this an impossible dream? Just some thoughts from a non-techie person! I look forward to hearing more about developments in good course, and to see if any of my suggestions made it into developments. Good luck!
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Kirk Bowerman
March 18, 2021
Thank you!
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JOSÉ CARLOS LOMBAS HUERTA
March 18, 2021
El sentido común debe ser prioritario.Sentido comúnConjunto de ideas, hábitos y formas de pensar que el hombre ha elaborado en su actividad práctica cotidiana. En las publicaciones filosóficas, el término se utiliza ante todo en contraposición a las lucubraciones del idealismo, hechas de espaldas a la vida. En este aspecto, el punto de vista del sentido común coincide con las posiciones del materialismo. No es casual que los materialistas del pasado constantemente se remitieran a las razones del sentido común. Éste, no obstante, así entendido, adolecía de insuficiencias esenciales. No penetraba en la esencia profunda de los objetos y procesos, reflejaba la limitación del hacer práctico de todos los días. Ello explica que no raras veces el punto de vista del sentido común se contrapusiera al pensar científico. Los lazos cada vez más amplios entre la ciencia y la producción, así como el mayor conocimiento que todas las capas de la población adquieren de las concepciones científicas, modifican las características de la práctica diaria, la aproximan a la práctica de la ciencia, y modifican asimismo las características del sentido común, acercándolo, en cierta medida al conocimiento científico. Por esto, precisamente, la contraposición anterior pasa a ser sumamente convencional.
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