Tim Berners-Lee says the internet can still be fixed.

Tim Berners-Lee, who proposed the World Wide Web in 1989, says he and collaborators are working to return control of the web to users and promote personal data sovereignty through Solid data "pods".

Tim Berners-Lee, who proposed the World Wide Web in 1989, says he and a community of collaborators are trying to restore more control to web users. He sets out those views in his recent book This Is For Everyone and in interviews. Berners-Lee traces many current problems to the commercialization and concentration of the web and to platform designs that prioritise engagement. He also warned about risks from current AI development and called for broader scientific collaboration. Key developments: - Berners-Lee proposed an information management system in March 1989 and implemented the first successful HTTP client-server communication later that year. - He founded and is emeritus director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which has overseen web standards. - He says commercialization and platform design focused on engagement helped create problems such as manipulation, addiction, polarization and surveillance; he names platforms including X, Snapchat, YouTube and Meta as examples of that dynamic. - He is promoting the Solid protocol, in which individuals hold personal data in private "pods" and decide what to share; the Flanders government in Belgium is reported to be using Solid pods for citizens. - He expressed concern about the pace and siloed development of AI and suggested a CERN-like collaborative approach to assess and contain major AI risks. Summary: Berners-Lee frames his work as an effort to return data control to people and reduce reliance on dominant platforms. He is promoting Solid and wider scientific cooperation on AI, but the scope and timing of any broader change are undetermined at this time.