The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), fronted by Internet creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee, says it is worried about the way the web has been "used to spread disinformation".

Speaking to the BBC, Berners-Lee said that there needed to be a new system that would give websites a "label for trustworthiness" once they had been proved reliable sources. Only then would the rise of "cult thinking" be avoided according to Berners-Lee.

"On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which was 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which is very believable," Berners-Lee said. "A sort of conspiracy theory of sorts and which you can imagine spreading to thousands of people and being deeply damaging."

Deeply damaging to who? one might ask. The answer is revealed in the list of The World Wide Web Consortium’s 400 plus members, the cream of the corporate world in conjunction with government agencies such as National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and military entities like the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).

Berners-Lee cites two examples of such "disinformation" or "conspiracy theories" in his interview with the BBC, both of which speak volumes about the aims and goals of this elite consortium:

http://www.infowars.com/?p=4555


Perhaps "Sir Tim" would be happier in China: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Shield_Project

Umm, I would consider this a piece of text taken out of context. He is not advocating censorship, but a special label to show that the site is reliable.

I can see it now, InsanelyMac would be labeled as unreliable information. Then what site would I go to, to get reliable information to maintain my hackintosh.

And how is this site reliable to begin with? All we have is a bunch of hackers attempting to get hardware to work. This place isn't 100% correct, along with the rest of OSx86 sites.

That is funny on so many levels.

Something recommended by the cream of the corporate world in conjunction with government agencies and military entities looks like "highly unreliable"...

Great idea! Way too much misinformation spread on the Internet. The Internet is a great communications tool, but it should be used to help people, not make them dumber.

I enjoy my misinformation, thank you.

I vote to keep the government out of our intertubes. I think the smarter among us can decide what is real information or complete or total BS. If someone is stupid enough to think that something idiotic is, indeed, correct, then maybe they deserve to be tricked. I usually am in favor of government interference is some aspects of our lives, but the internet isn't one of them.

Seconded.

Also seconded. I don't think anybody believes that governments, military entities or corporate entities are the ideal people to be telling us what is reliable or trustworthy. People who want to fall for misinformation can either wake up or continue to be stupid. Censorship of any information is a slippery slope.

bofors, *please* stop putting your messages in bold/underline/etc, it's very annoying.