Who will the Web belong To?

Thats an interesting question, and a great discussion idea

For me, I'd have to start by asking the questions "Does the web belong to anyone?" and "What does it mean to own the web?"!

Firstly you could ask if it's the companies that control and manage the undersea cables, satellites, exchange points and local telecom wires that make up the actual physically of the internet. The owners of that stuff are a wide mix of governments, companies and international standards groups (mostly from the US but also many other places)!
Then there's the people who own (and make) the servers that most data lives on; Microsoft, Intel, IBM and Amazon are biggies there; however there are many smaller data centres like the one this forum is hosted on that don't make hardware, but do operate independently
After that you can look at who owns the way individual people access the web; mainly Google and Mozilla, the two companies who manage the largest browser engines (like Chrome) ~ they have less of a literal ownership, since it is possible to make your own browser engine, but these days its very hard! (Also a shoutout to the W3 standards group who decide what counts as HTML and CSS)
Thennn after that you can look at who owns the material thats being most looked at (and this is getting closer to what your thinking about) - again Google, Facebook, Netflix are VAST; but also indie web crafters like us are in there!
Finally finally, who is looking at the material? You and me (and a few AI bots atm)

Do any of these people own the web? They all play important parts in the webs process, however each layer is only relevant because the next layer needs it. If you and I were not here to watch Netflix, then Netflix would be irrelevant, and many of the servers and wires that make it function would be irrelevant too!

It sounds like your saying that the web is owned by whoever creates the most content (correct me if I'm wrong!); and thats an interesting angle, but I don't think I agree; for the same reason that Netflix would be irrelevant if no one watched it; content is only alive if people care enough to engage with it.

So the answer for me is that everyone owns the web

I own it, You own it, Jeff Bazos owns it and I guess even a few cats own it if they happen to jump on a keyboard; perhaps bots own it too, and perhaps the wires own themselves? It would be easy to say that only living things can own the web. However, what if the web is its own entity? What if you and me and the servers of Amazon are all part of the same thing? We are all on the same planet after all, we all live in the same ecosystem, so why not the same web?

I'm sure thats getting a little too out there for some people

However the point is that as humans (both living and dead) we each play a small role of ownership; bots play another part, and wires and servers and companies each play their own part too. The web only exists as long as we all share it. While, within our roles we have the ability to create and destroy, and we have the ability to defend the parts of the web that we feel are important. So.. everyone who chooses to participate in the web, belongs to the web, and likewise it belongs to everyone