TANZANIA – World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee said Thursday the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates “the gross inequality” of a world where almost half the population is unable to connect to the internet.
He told a high-level U.N. meeting “our number one focus must be to close the digital divide.”Some 3.5 billion people have missed out on the “lifeline” the internet has provided during the coronavirus crisis that has enabled work, education and social connections online, Berners-Lee said.“This inequality is a barrier to wider equality, and we know it most affects those who are already marginalized — people in developing countries, those on low incomes, and of course, women and girls, he said. “Men remain 21 percent more likely than women to.