{"id":1405,"date":"2014-12-15T17:37:27","date_gmt":"2014-12-15T17:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/labs.webfoundation.org\/id\/webindexlaunch\/"},"modified":"2015-12-04T08:59:09","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T08:59:09","slug":"webindexlaunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/labs.webfoundation.org\/id\/webindexlaunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Recognise the Internet as a human right, says Sir Tim Berners-Lee as he launches annual Web Index"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Original post<\/a>\u00a0from the World Wide Web Foundation:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and founder of the Web Foundation, has called for the Internet to be recognised as a basic human right. At the release of the 2014-15 Web Index<\/a> \u2014 the world\u2019s first measure of the Web\u2019s contribution to social, economic and political progress \u2014 Sir Tim noted that in our increasingly unequal world, the Web has the potential to be a great equalizer, but only\u00a0\u201cif we hardwire the rights to privacy, freedom of expression, affordable access and net neutrality into the rules of the game.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

The 2014-15 edition of the Web Foundation\u2019s annual Web Index examines key Web issues \u2014 including privacy, censorship, gender-based violence, equality and, for the first time ever, net neutrality \u2014 across 86 countries. The findings from this year\u2019s Index point to a Web that is becoming less free and more unequal. Almost 60% of the world\u2019s people \u2014 4.3 billion \u2013 cannot get online, while over half of those who can access the Web live in countries that severely restrict their rights online. Indiscriminate government surveillance and online censorship are both on the rise. 84% of countries are adjudged to have weak or non-existent laws to protect citizens from indiscriminate mass surveillance, up from 63% in 2013. Meanwhile, 38% of countries are now censoring politically or socially sensitive content to a \u2018moderate or extensive\u2019 degree \u2014 an increase of 6% from 2013. In addition, only a quarter of the countries assessed this year effectively enforce clear rules to protect net neutrality.<\/p>\n

The Web Index shows that nations that have high levels of wealth, low levels of inequality, and strong protection for civil liberties \u2014 such as top-ranked Denmark, Finland and Norway \u2014 are gaining the most social and economic benefit from the Web. The positive correlation between wealth, education and benefit from the digital revolution is a concerning trend, with the potential to further entrench global inequality and undermine the free and open Web. \u201cThis trend can and must reversed,<\/i>\u201d said Anne Jellema, CEO of the Web Foundation and lead author of the 2014-15 Web Index report.<\/p>\n

In order to reverse this slide and leverage the power of technology to fight inequality, the Web Foundation is calling on policymakers to:<\/p>\n