WEB-RUSSIA/PUTIN Inventor of Web tells Russia's Putin: Internet is not a 'CIA project'

Record ID: 838775

  • Title: WEB-RUSSIA/PUTIN Inventor of Web tells Russia's Putin: Internet is not a 'CIA project'
  • Date: 11th December 2014
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (DECEMBER 11, 2014) (REUTERS) INVENTOR OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB TIM BERNERS-LEE SITTING WITH COLLEAGUES DURING WORLD WIDE WEB FOUNDATION NEWS CONFERENCE BERNERS-LEE SPEAKING MEDIA SIGN READING (English) 'WORLD WIDE WEB FOUNDATION' (SOUNDBITE) (English) INVENTOR OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB, TIME BERNERS-LEE, SAYING: "The Internet is not a CIA creation, the Internet was invented with funding from the U.S. government. So it spread across the U.S. first because the U.S. funded universities to be on it and to be connected." SIGN READING (English) 'WORLD WIDE WEB FOUNDATION' (SOUNDBITE) (English) INVENTOR OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB, TIME BERNERS-LEE, SAYING: "I don't think that people across the world believe the Internet was a CIA creation. The people who have spread the Internet in fact are, it was spread very much by the grass roots, so it was the academic community who wired up their universities and they established connections between different universities. So in fact in the countries where there is Internet it's because it's been put together by people, smart people, well-meaning people who did it because they thought it would be really a good idea." SIGN READING (English) 'WEB INDEX' (SOUNDBITE) (English) INVENTOR OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB, TIME BERNERS-LEE, SAYING: "Well in general I think it's important for law enforcement to have powers to be able to follow up because there is a huge amount of cyber crime and cyber crime is a big problem but I think that whenever you give law enforcement agencies any huge power you have to build some very solid mechanism where they're shown to be accountable, and this accountability has been clearly lacking, so both in the U.S. and the UK I think there needs to be a big move to build in systems where the people who watch us are watched themselves." PHOTOGRAPHER / NEWS CONFERENCE MEDIA NEWS CONFERENCE WEB INDEX GRAPHIC ON SCREEN (SOUNDBITE) (English) INVENTOR OF THE WORLD WIDE WEB, TIME BERNERS-LEE, SAYING: "Well the Internet itself is a neutral medium so to first order, the Internet is a tool like all powerful tools, it can be used for good and evil, it can be used by good people and bad people and so when you look at the Web you see humanity connected. And humanity has got some wonderful parts and it's got some gruesome parts. In a way it's not, you can't design an Internet which will suddenly turn everybody into saints. What you can do is, to a certain extent, you can design an Internet which is open, which the first order gives people the right to free expression but then also second level does give the police powers where people doing really nasty things, to be able to find them." SIGN READING: WEB INDEX / BERNERS-LEE SPEAKING TO JOURNALIST VARIOUS OF BERNERS-LEE SPEAKING TO JOURNALIST
  • Embargoed: 26th December 2014 12:00
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  • Location: United Kingdom
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  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAEKI8HXXUUTW2TAAC6G43TOI8N
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  • Story Text: The inventor of the World Wide Web said on Thursday (December 11) that Russian President Vladimir Putin was incorrect when he alleged the Internet was a project created by U.S. spies in the Central Intelligence Agency.
    Putin, a former KGB spy who does not use email, has said he will not restrict Internet access for Russians, but in April he stoked concerns that the Kremlin might seek to crackdown by saying the internet was born out of a "CIA project".
    "The Internet is not a CIA creation," Tim Berners-Lee, a London-born computer scientist who invented the Web in 1989 - the year that the Berlin Wall collapsed - told Reuters when asked about Putin's CIA comment.
    Berners-Lee said the Internet was invented with the help of U.S. state funding, but was spread by academics.
    "It was the academic community who wired up their universities so it was put together by smart, well-meaning people who thought it was a good idea," he said.
    Berners-Lee has previously scolded the United States and Britain for undermining the internet's foundations with their surveillance programmes. He has also called on China to tear down the "great firewall" that limits its people's access to the Internet.
    Asked about his World Wide Web Foundation's rankings of the way 86 countries approach the Internet, Berners-Lee said the Internet should be recognised as a human right and protected from commercial and political interference.
    Ethiopia and Myanmar were bottom of the list while Denmark and Finland topped the rankings, which score access, freedom and openness, relevant content and social, economic and political empowerment.
    Britain came fourth, the United States was sixth, Russia was ranked 35 and China 44.
    He said it was important for law enforcement agencies to have adequate powers to combat cyber crime but cautioned that there was a need for greater accountability of what those agencies were doing.
    "In general I think it's important for law enforcement to have powers to be able to follow up because there is a huge amount of cyber crime and cyber crime is a big problem but I think that whenever you give law enforcement agencies any huge power you have to build some very solid mechanism where they're shown to be accountable and this accountability has been clearly lacking, so both in the U.S. and the UK I think there needs to be a big move to build in systems where the people who watch us are watched themselves."
    In reference to the use of the Internet to spread militant Islamist propaganda, such as films showing the beheading of western journalists in Syria, Berners-Lee said the internet's use reflected the condition of mankind.
    "Like all powerful tools, it can be used for good and evil, it can be used by good people and bad people," he said.
    "When you look at the Web you see humanity connected. Humanity has got some wonderful parts and some gruesome parts. You can't design an Internet that will suddenly turn everybody into saints. What you can do is design an Internet that is open."
    The World Wide Web Foundation launched its annual web index on Thursday.
    The report criticised growing censorship by governments and commercial manipulation.
    The Foundation said some 38 percent of states denied free internet use to citizens.
    Laws preventing bulk mass surveillance were weak or non-existent in more than 84 percent of countries, up from 63 percent in 2013, it said.
    Moderate or extensive censorship was seen in 38 percent of countries, up from 32 percent in 2013.
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