On The Web's 28th B-Day Berners-Lee Targets 'Fake News'

Happy birthday to the web, which is 28 years young today... and it's creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee has used the occasion to warn us all about three "challenges" that threaten to get in the way of the web "fulfilling its potential".

First, Berners-Lee tackles personal data, saying that we should be given more control over the information we're sharing and how it's being shared - rather than having it kept in "proprietary silos" by the web's biggest companies.

The third threat to the web as we know it is fake news, or "misinformation" as Berners-Lee calls it, which he says can spread "like wildfire". As with political advertising, the complexity of the technology now on the web has made it easier for businesses to target users with stories that may not be 100 percent accurate.

"Through the use of data science and armies of bots, those with bad intentions can game the system to spread misinformation for financial or political gain," writes Berners-Lee.

Source: Tech Radar