On the web's 35th birthday, there are two issues to address: power concentration, which contradicts decentralization, and exploitation of personal data
Tim Berners-Lee / World Wide Web Foundation : Mastodon: @nickheer@c.im and @matthiasott@mastodon.social . Bluesky: @upshotknothole.bsky.social X: @mave99a , @ingridlunden , @mattbrittin , @timberners_lee , and @caitoz Mastodon: Nick Heer / @nickheer@c.im : “Three and a half decades ago, when I invented the web,” is such a boss opening line. https://webfoundation.org/... Matthias Ott / @matthiasott@mastodon.social : “The future hinges on our ability to both reform the current system and create a new one that genuinely serves the best interests of humanity. To achieve this, we must break down data silos to encourage collaboration, create market conditions in which a diversity of options thrive to fuel creativity … Bluesky: @upshotknothole.bsky.social : Hard to believe I've been online for about as long as the internet has been around. I wasn't on the internet for several more years, all BBS back then. First email address was maybe 91-93 era, a local BBS added email support, it would connect and relay emails a couple times a day via dial up. … X: Robert Mao / @mave99a : 35 years ago @timberners_lee invented World Wide Web. 5 years ago he introduced SOLID (a kind of decentralized data storage protocol). 2 years ago he approved DID as one of W3C recommendations. Ingrid / @ingridlunden : Agree, but can these be addressed effectively once the genie is out of the bottle? Something to consider when considering how new tech like AI is being built, regulated, etc. Matt Brittin / @mattbrittin : From the founder of the web as it turns 35 - a huge thank you to @timberners_lee not just for his invention but also @webfoundation pushing for an open, affordable web that brings out the best in humanity and challenges the worst...more important than ever: Tim Berners-Lee / @timberners_lee : My open letter marking the Web's 35th birthday addresses the erosion of the web's core values and resulting power imbalances that are influencing transformative technologies, reshaping geopolitics and driving economic shifts. The time to act is now. 👇 https://medium.com/... Caitlin Johnstone / @caitoz : The inventor of the web decries “the extent of power concentration” we've seen take place with online platforms, saying it “contradicts the decentralised spirit I originally envisioned” for the internet. Relevant as the US works to gift TikTok to the more easily-controlled Meta.
Context & Ripple Effects
This anniversary intervention extends Berners-Lee's earlier warning that harassment and unequal access were undermining the web's social promise, now centering the architecture of power and data control. It also arrives after federated networks such as Mastodon gained attention as an alternative to dominant social platforms.
The underlying policy argument is not simply to restrain incumbents, but to make decentralized data and identity systems viable alongside reform of the current web. Berners-Lee's earlier data-control work through Inrupt's pilots for user-controlled data provides a concrete antecedent for that agenda.
First-order effects
- The letter puts platform concentration and personal-data exploitation at the center of the Web Foundation's advocacy agenda, directing attention toward reforms that reduce dependence on a small set of intermediaries.
- It reinforces the case for decentralized protocols such as SOLID and DID as practical alternatives to data silos, rather than treating decentralization as an abstract web principle.
Second-order effects
- Federated social services and data-portability efforts gain a clearer competitive rationale: they can position choice and user control as differentiators against centralized platforms.
- Incumbent platforms face more sustained pressure to justify data practices and interoperability boundaries as advocates connect market concentration with the web's original decentralized design.
Third-order effects
- If reforms and alternative protocols gain adoption together, the web could shift from platform-owned identity and data stores toward more portable, interoperable user relationships; adoption and usable business models remain the key constraints.
- The debate is moving beyond content moderation alone toward whether the web's underlying data and market structure can support durable pluralism—an issue earlier web-governance warnings about harm and exclusion had already exposed.
The trend: This is one data point in the push to pair platform accountability with decentralized infrastructure that gives people and smaller services more control over data and distribution.