Web inventor proposes personal data pods to shift power from platforms to users

Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, has created a visual map of the internet that identifies just six platforms as “harmful” out of roughly 100 digital services—Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X, and YouTube. Despite acknowledging the web’s problems with misinformation and polarization, Berners-Lee remains optimistic about its future and has developed a plan to restore user control through personal data wallets that would shift power away from big tech companies.

The big picture: Berners-Lee’s assessment challenges the narrative that the internet is fundamentally broken, arguing that harmful elements represent only a small fraction of the digital landscape.

• His hand-drawn map plots the entire internet ecosystem, showing that “most of it is good” despite widespread concerns about social media’s impact on society.
• The visualization includes blocks for positive elements like blogs, podcasts, creativity, and collaboration, with Wikipedia earning praise as “probably the best single example” of his original vision for web-based collaboration.

What went wrong: The web’s inventor traces the platform’s problems to 2016, when Brexit and Trump’s election highlighted how social media enabled political manipulation.

• Social media companies create “addictive” algorithms designed to capture attention, often by feeding users content that makes them angry or content that’s untrue.
• Political campaigns shifted from transparent “broadcasting” to targeted “narrowcasting,” making it harder to track misleading claims or counter manipulation.
• “It’s human nature to be attracted by things that make you angry,” Berners-Lee explains. “If social media feeds you something which is untrue, you’re more likely to click on it.”

His solution: Berners-Lee proposes personal data wallets called “pods” (personal online data stores) that would give users complete control over their information.

• Instead of platforms owning user-generated content, individuals would store everything from photos to medical records in their own data wallet.
• Users could then decide what to share and with whom, breaking the current system where you can’t easily move content between platforms.
• His company Inrupt is working to make this approach a reality, aiming to shift from an “attention economy” to an “intention economy.”

In plain English: Think of it like having your own personal filing cabinet that you control, instead of letting Facebook, Google, and other companies store your photos, messages, and personal information in their filing cabinets. With your own data wallet, you decide who gets to see what—like choosing whether to show your workout history to a fitness app or your shopping preferences to a retailer.

AI integration potential: The data wallet concept becomes more powerful when combined with artificial intelligence that works for users rather than big tech.

• An AI with access to your data wallet could provide highly personalized recommendations—like suggesting running shoes based on your measurements, workout history, and spending patterns—without requiring lengthy explanations.
• Berners-Lee envisions AI assistants bound by a digital Hippocratic oath to “do no harm,” functioning as truly personal assistants rather than corporate data-collection tools.

Why this matters: The proposal represents a fundamental power shift that could reverse big tech’s growing control over digital life.

• Moving from platform-controlled data to user-controlled pods would dramatically change how the internet functions, giving individuals sovereignty over their digital identity.
• Berners-Lee’s track record includes correctly predicting the web’s explosive growth—it increased by a factor of 10 each year for its first three years—and successfully convincing CERN, the European particle physics lab, to make the web royalty-free in 1993.

What he’s saying: Despite the web’s current challenges, Berners-Lee maintains his characteristic optimism about technology’s potential for good.

• “In the early days of the web, delight and surprise were everywhere, but today online life is as likely to induce anxiety as joy,” he writes in his new memoir “This Is For Everyone.”
• On social media’s problems: “We need to change that, one way or another,” though he acknowledges that banning addictive systems conflicts with his usual free-and-open approach.
• “It’s more empowering for the individual,” he says of the intention economy model, where companies compete to help users achieve their stated goals rather than fighting for attention.