Earlier this month, the world wide web marked another important milestone. It celebrated its 25th anniversary as a service available to everyone. The first server was publicly launched on August 6, 1991, and it signalled the advent of the modern internet. Its journey began with one machine in Switzerland - Tim Berners-Lee came up with the idea in a Cern laboratory in 1989 - and today, a quarter of a century later, the internet has over 600 million websites, coded with new languages and audio-visual media.
Funnily enough, no one really understood that a revolution was around the corner. Berners-Lee had initially created the web so that physicists around the world could share information with one another. No one apart from internet engineers and bona fide researchers had even heard of the web. There were also other systems for information sharing available on the internet at the time. However, the web was eventually embraced owing to two factors. First, it was easy to use, and second, the technology was made royalty-free in 1993.
A number of important things happened 25 years ago, including the conclusion of the Cold War, but the launch of the web was arguably the most significant of them all. Wars and governments might dominate headlines, but it was the web that transformed the entire globe into one tight-knit community. It changed national economies - one would have a tough time trying to think of an industry that has not been deeply affected by the internet, be it television, retail, real estate, film, journalism or music. What began as a way to connect scientists with one another has grown by leaps and bounds over the past 25 years to become the most significant instrument of communication since Johannes Gutenberg created his printing press.
Come together
There is cause for worry, though. The web's phenomenal growth and impact on populations have also led to governments and corporations wanting to control it. In a bid to rake in the profits, telecommunications companies are angling to destroy the open access to the web that users have enjoyed for so many years. One of the most important events in the journey of the web was when the technology was made royalty-free. Net neutrality is a simple, direct idea: all the web content that users can view on their computers or phones, whether it is Facebook or a friend's blog, should be freely accessible to everyone, regardless of who created it. But the ongoing battle around net neutrality could do irreparable damage to the future of the web. Companies like Facebook and telecom operators such as Airtel in India wish to create an online environment where they can force users to pay higher, separate fees to be able to use services like Skype and WhatsApp apart from their usual data pack charges.
China already blocks numerous web pages for its citizens. Edward Snowden told the world that governments have used the internet to spy, and the uncomfortable truth is that Facebook and Google collect data about their users and maintain a record of their digital footprint. If large telecom companies were to take over the web, then users would no longer have access to everything on the internet without speed barriers or blockades. And this would amount to a huge blow to democracy and the economy.
Internet users have all the more reason, then, to protect their right to use the web freely, and to fight for the rights of more and more people to gain access to the internet. The web's impact has been both complicated and profound. It has led to the collapse of some businesses and the success of others. It might have aided hate groups and trolls in mobilizing support for themselves, but it has also strengthened free speech in an unprecedented manner. And, most significantly, it has bound people together, for better or for worse.
