Berners-Lee: Insidious government surveillance may be worse than outright censorship

The insidious nature of government spying has a chilling and subtle effect on Web freedoms that could ultimately be more damaging to society than outright censorship, World Wide Web creator Tim Berners-Lee told the audience at the launch of the World Wide Web Foundation's 2013 Web Index findings.

The legacy of the revelations made by whistleblower Edward Snowden into the actions of national security agencies (the NSA, GCHQ, and others) will be long-lasting, intimated Berners-Lee. While nations such as China openly engage in censorship, what the US and the UK have done could potentially leave a trail of paranoia that in turn leads to a trend for self-censorship among citizens of the allegedly "free" West. This year's Web Index was finished in September 2013, so Berners-Lee suggests some countries may have ranked even lower considering the revelations of the past few months. The US and the UK predictably fell a few spots down the table on the sub-index Freedom and Openness. Though the UK came out third overall, one spot ahead of the US, it came 24th for Freedom and Openness. It came eighth for Universal Access, first for Relevant Content, and third for Empowerment.

(Nov 22)