This piece from Vanity Fair (The Man Who Created the World Wide Web Has Some Regrets) is a nice bit of history on how Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web software and how he sees that its intent has gone wildly off course. The democratized, decentralized version of the web is slowly on the way out as a handful of companies control a lot of the web experience and users have less control over their data. The central question can be summed up with this quote:

Are we headed toward an Orwellian future where a handful of corporations monitor and control our lives? Or are we on the verge of creating a better version of society online, one where the free flow of ideas and information helps cure disease, expose corruption, reverse injustices?

While that may seem dramatic at first, I don't think it's inaccurate. The Internet really does have the potential to do wonderfully huge things for humanity, if we help it get there. It's an incredibly hard resource to protect (see: Net Neutrality Fight Volume 1 through 25) but absolutely worth it.

The article also speaks on Berners-Lee new project Solid, a "new eco-system" for the web that aims to give control back to users through proper data ownership. That may not sound like the best tool for fighting against an Orwellian future but every little step we can take away from that path is a good one.