The web is fast becoming a forum for conspiracy theories, rumour, innuendo and misleading information to breed, according to Tim Berners-Lee, who created it in the first place.
He is worried that it was used to spread fear of the Large Hadron Collider creating a black hole and the MMR vaccine harming children.
On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which has 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which was very believable. A sort of conspiracy theory of sorts and which you can imagine spreading to thousands of people and being deeply damaging.
The way around this, Berners-Lee says, is for the web to give people a way of discerning which information is accurate and truthful by using a system that proves when sites have reliable sources.
Duncan Riley, writing on the technology and pop culture blog Inquisitr, is not a fan of the prospect.
As much as I'm sure Tim Berners-Lee has good intentions in making such a proposal one can only presume that he has lost the plot … the idea that his creation be based on rankings around truths needs to die quickly before repressive governments … use his words as an excuse to censor and filter the internet further.
Should the web be verified, or does it go against everything the web is about?
