Tim Berners-Lee “just says no” to internet.org
▻http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/may/29/tim-berners-lee-urges-britain-to-fight-snoopers-charter
Tim Berners-Lee urges Britain to fight ’snooper’s charter’ | Technology | The Guardian
Berners-Lee also warned about attempts to improve internet access around the world by offering cut-down versions of the web, such as Facebook’s Internet.org project. Users should “just say no” to such proposals, he insisted. (...)
The Web We Want campaign is promoting five key principles for the future of the web: Freedom of expression online and offline, affordable access to the net, protection of user data and privacy, a decentralised and open infrastructure, and net neutrality.
But the campaign is insistent that the five principles are a minimum starting point, and that compromise on those points is not helpful to the goal. That puts it in conflict with more than just the usual suspects. When asked about Internet.org, Facebook’s non-profit organisation that aims to extend access to a few select websites in the developing world, Berners-Lee said people should “just say no” to the project.
When it comes to compromising on net neutrality, “I tend to say ‘just say no’,” he said.
“In the particular case of somebody who’s offering … something which is branded internet, it’s not internet, then you just say no. No it isn’t free, no it isn’t in the public domain, there are other ways of reducing the price of internet connectivity and giving something … [only] giving people data connectivity to part of the network deliberately, I think is a step backwards.”