UK's Internet industry names Apple a hero, Trump villain

The 2016 UK Internet Industry Awards has nominated for the internet hero of the year, which has also nominated Donald Trump as the villain of the year.

The nominations are based on crowd sourced suggestions from the public with a final shortlist determined by the ISPA Council, and cover the previous twelve months of developments in this arena.

Apple was also nominated for defending the fundamental principles of encryption and customer privacy, in regard to the hacking of a terrorist's iPhone. Donald Trump, on the other hand, was nominated as the villain, for calling on industry to ‘close’ parts of the Internet.

Last year, UK MPs David Davis and Tom Watson shared the hero award as part of their work against DRIPA, while Home Secretary Theresa May was named as a villain for her threatening legislative activities.

RecentLY MPs (and QCs) Joanna Cherry and Sir Keir Starmer were also nominated for their continued scrutiny of the Investigatory Powers Bill as the legislation passes through Parliament.

Apart from personalities in surveillance and security, Andrew Ferguson, the editor of ThinkBroadband, was also nominated as internet hero for editing an invaluable resource that explains and maps out broadband to inform consumers. The Web Foundation was also nominated for working to extend the basic right of connectivity to the 60 percent of the global population unable to connect to the internet.

In the villain category, Mossack Fonseca joins Trump for demonstrating poor cyber security practices. The anonymous ‘Internet Troll’ was also nominated as a villain for overstepping the bounds of free speech, threatening the principle of an Internet for all.