World Wide Web

• Type: Muggle Technology, Global Information System
• Inventor: Tim Berners-Lee (Muggle)
• Status in Wizarding World: Largely unknown and unused. It is considered a purely Muggle invention with no practical application in the magical community.

The World Wide Web, often simply called “the web,” is a Muggle information system where documents and other web resources are identified by Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), which may be interlinked by hypertext, and are accessible over the Internet. It is accessed using a Muggle device known as a computer. By the 1990s, it had become a central aspect of Muggle communication, commerce, and daily life. To the majority of the wizarding world, the web is a complete unknown. Most wizards and witches live in relative isolation from Muggle society and have no need or desire for their technology. For the few who are aware of it, such as Arthur Weasley from the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, it is viewed with a mixture of curiosity and bemusement, seen as one of the clever but ultimately cumbersome ways Muggles “get by without magic.” This perception reflects a general wizarding ignorance and condescension towards non-magical solutions.

The World Wide Web is entirely non-functional within major magical locations like Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The primary reason for this is the disruptive effect of concentrated magic on sophisticated Muggle electronics. As Hermione Granger explained, technologies that rely on electricity, such as computers, “go haywire” in environments with a high ambient level of magic. This magical interference effectively prevents the adoption of the web and other digital technologies within the core of the wizarding world. Instead of the web, the magical community relies on its own established, and often more efficient, methods of long-distance communication and information retrieval. These include, but are not limited to:

• Owl Post for physical mail delivery.
• The Floo Network for travel and communication.
• Patronus messengers for urgent and secure communication.
• Magical publications like the Daily Prophet for news.
• Extensive magical libraries for research.

The World Wide Web is mentioned by name only once in the original book series. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Hermione Granger discusses the mystery of how reporter Rita Skeeter is acquiring private information from within the grounds of Hogwarts. She dismisses the possibility of electronic bugs or other surveillance technologies, explaining to Harry Potter and Ron Weasley that such Muggle devices would not function at the school. This conversation serves to reinforce the rules of the magical world and close a potential plot hole regarding modern technology. The existence of the web and computers in the Muggle world during this time is also confirmed in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, when Dudley Dursley is given a computer by his parents after he throws his television out of the window.

The official Wizarding World website (formerly Pottermore) elaborates on the relationship between magic and technology in an article titled “Technology.” The article confirms that wizards do not use the internet, not only because of magical interference but also because they simply have no need for it. Their own magical methods of communication are described as being more secure and often faster than Muggle alternatives. It posits that magic and electricity are incompatible forces, which explains why wizarding homes are lit by candles and fire rather than light bulbs. (Pottermore)