It was cofounded by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, and Rosemary Leith.

[2] Announced in September 2008[3] in Washington, D.C., the Web Foundation launched operations in November 2009 at the Internet Governance Forum.

It seeks to achieve digital equality; a world where everyone has the same rights and opportunities online.

Its team of around 30 employees works from three main hubs in Jakarta, London and Washington, D.C.[10] It is also the host organization for the Alliance for Affordable Internet, a global coalition of organizations working to reduce the costs of broadband and increase access to the internet.

[15][16] These principles received backing from governments including Germany[17] and France,[18] companies such as Google, Facebook and Cloudflare, as well as a number of civil society organizations.