Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, warned that the freedom of the internet is under threat by governments interested in controlling it. British Berners-Lee called on Saturday for a bill of rights that would guarantee the independence of the internet and ensure users’ privacy.

"If a company can control your access to the internet, if they can control which websites they go to, then they have tremendous control over your life," Berners-Lee said at the Web We Want festival on the future of the internet in London.

"If a government can block you going to, for example, the opposition’s political pages, then they can give you a blinkered view of reality to keep themselves in power."

"Suddenly the power to abuse the open internet has become so tempting both for government and big companies."

Berners-Lee is the director of the World Wide Web Consortium, a body which develops guidelines for the development of the internet.

He called for an internet version of the Magna Carta, the 13th century English charter credited with guaranteeing basic rights and freedoms.

Concerns over privacy and freedom on the internet have increased in the wake of the revelation of mass government monitoring of online activity following leaks by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.