From a 10.24 Guardian story by Alex Hern: “Tim Berners-Lee has expressed sadness that the web has mirrored the dark side of humanity, as well as enabling its ‘wonderful side’ to flourish.”

Hollywood Elsewhere to Tim Berners-Lee: “I hear you, man. I know exactly what you’re talking about and then some. But I fear your assessment of human nature is a touch on the Pollyannic side. If nothing else comment threads on the web have revealed who and what some of us really are. The more vocal sector, I mean.”

Back to Hern: “The developer, who created the web in 1990 while working for the particle collider project Cern in Switzerland, said that the web is a reflection of human nature elsewhere, but that he had hoped ‘that the web would provide tools and fora and new ways of communicating that would break down national barriers and allow us to just get to a better global understanding.

“’Well, maybe it’ll happen in the future…maybe we will be able to build web-based tools that help us keep people on the path of collaborating rather than fighting.”

“Speaking to BBC News, Berners-Lee said that it was ‘staggering‘ that people ‘who clearly must have been brought up like anybody else will suddenly become very polarized in their opinions, will suddenly become very hateful rather than very loving.’”