In an open letter Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented world wide web, has said that the big WWW is now under threat and has lost its character that gave people ability to innovate. In his letter, that marks the web turning 29, Berners-Lee notes that the WWW not only faces challenges that include misinformation and loss of privacy but also dominance of a few platform that seem to have monopolised the internet.

“The threats to the web today are real and many, including those that I described in my last letter – from misinformation and questionable political advertising to a loss of control over our personal data,” wrote Berners-Lee.

“The web that many connected to years ago is not what new users will find today. What was once a rich selection of blogs and websites has been compressed under the powerful weight of a few dominant platforms. This concentration of power creates a new set of gatekeepers, allowing a handful of platforms to control which ideas and opinions are seen and shared… These dominant platforms are able to lock in their position by creating barriers for competitors,” noted Berners-Lee, who after creating the building blocks of WWW gave it all away instead of patenting his idea.

Although he doesn’t name any of these platform, they are fairly recognisable on the web right now. Facebook is one of them. Then there is Google. In some ways, even Apple that controls the iOS platform and Amazon, the big e-shopping behemoth can also be considered part of the platforms that are dominating the web nowadays. Facebook in particular is notorious for undermining the open nature of the web. Not only the company has kept social media site Facebook, and almost all the content inside it, away from search engines and open web, it also often buys out competitors to keep it all in its basket.

This is something that Berners-Lee highlights in his letter. He writes, “They acquire startup challengers, buy up new innovations and hire the industry’s top talent. Add to this the competitive advantage that their user data gives them and we can expect the next 20 years to be far less innovative than the last.”

In the last several years, Facebook has companies like Instagram and WhatsApp whereas Google has amassed more and more data that gives it a big advantage in developing solutions based on machine learning and AI.

One exception to the reach of dominant platform has been the web in China where the government has banned companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter and has ensured that websites like Amazon comply with, occasional, unfair conditions. This has allowed a number of Chinese startups to come up. However, it is almost certain that Berners-Lee doesn’t consider the Chinese web, which is heavily censored and monitored, the idea model of the web.

Berners-Lee says that despite challenges, there are ways to fix the web. “While the problems facing the web are complex and large, I think we should see them as bugs: problems with existing code and software systems that have been created by people – and can be fixed by people. Create a new set of incentives and changes in the code will follow. We can design a web that creates a constructive and supportive environment,” he writes.