The inventor of the World Wide Web has called for a bill of rights this week in order to protect freedom of speech on the Internet and users' rights.
Inventor Tim Berners-Lee feels that something needs to be done in order to protect users after leaks about government surveillance of online activity, according to Reuters.
Berners-Lee, who invented the web around 25-years-ago, said there is a need for a charter like England's historic Magna Carta in order to help promise "fundamental principles" online.
There has been a public debate going on for almost year regarding web privacy and freedom after former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked a number of secret documents revealing a U.S. government system for monitoring phone and Internet data.
Accusations have been made that NSA was looking at personal data of users of Google, Facebook, Skype, and Twitter, along with other U.S. services.
President Barack Obama announced reforms in January to cut back on the NSA program and ban snooping on the leaders of close friends and allies of the U.S.
Berners-Lee said recently said it is time for a decision, as he feels that more surveillance and censorship, in countries such as China, would threaten the future of democracy, according to Reuters.
"Are we going to continue on the road and just allow the governments to do more and more and more control - more and more surveillance?" Berners-Lee said to BBC Radio. "Or are we going to set up something like a Magna Carta for the world wide web and say, actually, now it's so important, so much part of our lives, that it becomes on a level with human rights?"
Berners-Lee supports Snowden, claiming his actions were "in the public interest".
Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web Consortium, have launched "a year of action" for a campaign known as the Web We Want, according to Reuters. They are advising people to strive for an Internet "bill of rights" for every country.
"Our rights are being infringed more and more on every side, and the danger is that we get used to it. So I want to use the 25th anniversary for us all to do that, to take the web back into our own hands and define the web we want for the next 25 years," Berners-Lee said to the Guardian newspaper.
See Now: OnePlus 6: How Different Will It Be From OnePlus 5?
