Sir Tim Berners-Lee, widely credited as the founding force behind our beloved World Wide Web, has called for there to be an online Magna Carta to protect the Internet’s independence.

Berners-Lee spoke to the Guardian on the 25th anniversary of his proposal for the World Wide Web, and talked about how net neutrality is being threatened by corporations and governments alike.

“Unless we have an open, neutral Internet we can rely on without worrying about what’s happening at the back door, we can’t have open government, good democracy, good healthcare, connected communities and diversity of culture,” he said. “It’s not naive to think we can have that, but it is naive to think we can just sit back and get it.”

His ideas for a free Internet, which are detailed in the Web We Want project, would include free speech, privacy,  and  anonymity that is still responsible.

[via The Next Web, The Guardian, image via Knight Foundation’s flickr]