The future of the internet is up for debate
Tech Life
BBC
4.4 • 221 Ratings
🗓️ 1 July 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The way the internet will operate in the future is being discussed at the moment. Will it remain as it is now, or could governments become more involved and take more control ? We speak to ICANN, one of the technical institutions which help to keep the internet functioning, about their concerns.
Also this week: the man behind one of the most popular websites in the world talks to Tech Life. And we hear from the award-winning teenage inventor of a toxic dust detector.
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Presenter: Graham Fraser Producer: Tom Quinn Editor: Monica Soriano
Image: An illustration of a woman holding a tablet device connected to the internet. Credit: Suwanmanee99/Getty Images
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, podcast fan. Consider this your invite to the UK's biggest podcasting party. We're heading to Sheffield from the 4th to the 6th of July for the BBC Sounds Fringe at the Crosswires Festival. We'll be joined by some of the biggest names in podcasting, including Sarah Cox, Charlie Hedges, Russell Kane, and some bloke called Greg James doing his Radio 4 show called Rewinder. |
| 0:23.1 | You can watch live shows of your favourite podcasts, and the best part is free. |
| 0:28.0 | To book your free tickets, go to crossedwires.orgive, forward slash fringe. |
| 0:33.2 | Welcome to TechLife on the BBC World Service, the program about technology and the role it plays in all our lives. |
| 0:40.4 | I'm Graham Fraser. |
| 0:41.9 | This week, we are looking at the internet, the way it's been run for the last few decades, |
| 0:47.1 | and the discussion's going on right now about how it should operate in the future. |
| 0:51.5 | There's a lot at stake. |
| 0:53.5 | Also this week, and staying with the internet theme, |
| 0:56.4 | what next for Wikipedia? I interview Jimmy Wales, its co-founder. One of my fun things I like to do |
| 1:02.7 | is go down our list of languages until I find one that I've not heard of, which I'm, they're fewer and |
| 1:07.4 | fewer now because I've been doing that for years. And if you're looking for some good news this week, |
| 1:11.5 | we have the story of the award-winning teenager from America, |
| 1:14.8 | who's invented a device to monitor toxic air particles in her local area. |
| 1:41.9 | Music We start today by looking at the future of the internet. |
| 1:48.0 | According to United Nations research, it is estimated that 5.5 billion people, or 68% of the world's population, |
| 1:50.0 | used the internet last year. |
| 1:52.0 | You might even be listening to TechLife |
| 1:55.0 | by streaming us over an internet connection right now. |
| 1:58.0 | Well, two of the technical institutions that help keep it functioning |
| 2:02.5 | have teamed up to warn that what holds the internet together today, what keeps it running |
| 2:07.9 | smoothly, is at risk. And it might not be the same in the future. One of the institutions is |
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