UK comes third in web-index league

Tim Berners-Lee launches web index to track internet usage and freedoms.

Striving for an open Web – available, usable, and valuable for everyone.

Sweden has topped a new index of 61 countries that ranks how the web has impacted them on a social and political level.

Compiled by Sir Tim Berners-Lee – the inventor of the world wide web – the World Wide Web Foundation’s new index scores nations in seven categories to evaluate: access to, censorship of, usage of, economic impact, political impact, actual content and awareness of the web in general.

The index ranked Sweden top, the USA second and the UK third overall. The bottom nations were Nepal, Cameroon and Mali. The index discovered that globally one in three people use the web, while in Africa that drops to just one in six.

On why the index is important Sir Tim Berners-Lee said, “By shining a light on the barriers to web for everyone, the index is a powerful tool that will empower individuals, government and organisations to improve their societies.”

According to the index 30% of countries impose moderate to severe government restrictions on access to the web, with around half showing decreases in press freedom. Sir Tim Berners-Lee also indicated the single biggest barrier to web access was simple cost, stating “Costs have got to come down dramatically.”

Source: Word Wide Web Foundation

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