Prior to London’s the Web We Want Festival, inventor of the Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee addressed the UK government’s recent moves toward heightened public surveillance. In the recent Queen’s Speech, it was made known that the UK will seek to enable the tracking of web and social media use, as well as the “bulk interception” of communications.
Berners-Lee argued that citizens should play an important role in the debate around increased governmental surveillance capabilities:
“‘The discussion [in the Queen’s Speech] of increased monitoring powers is something which is a red flag … this discussion is a global one, it’s a big one, it’s something that people are very engaged with, they think it’s very important, and they’re right, because it is very important for democracy, and it’s very important for business. ‘So this sort of debate is something that should be allowed to happen around legislation. It’s really important that legislation is left out for a seriously long comment period,’ and not simply rushed through into law.”
