The W3C published a statement proposing Ethical Web Principles meant to “guide the community to build a better web”. These principles serve as a call to action, rather than a statement of the web’s current state. See them listed below…

  • There is one web
  • The web does not cause harm to society
  • The web supports healthy community and debate
  • The web is for all people
  • The web is secure and respects people’s privacy
  • The web enables freedom of expression
  • The web makes it possible to verify information
  • The web enhances individuals’ control and power
  • The web is an environmentally sustainable platform
  • The web is transparent
  • The web is multi-browser, multi-OS, and multi-device
  • The web can be consumed in any way that people choose

Those look lovely don’t they! Here’s some “flash takes” (i.e. quick thoughts) on each of them…

There is one web

China’s Great Firewall, dark web, deep web, local networks, intra-networks, etc… There’s a lot of webs. Though I think the point here is to keep the larger web open, free and available to the masses.

The web does not cause harm to society

Ooph. If only. You could probably argue that the web has done more societal and economic good than it has bad, but it’s tough to say that the web is wholly good, causing no harm to society right? Sure, maybe you could pin it on bad actors rather than the web itself, but that sounds a bit like the “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” argument.

The web supports healthy community and debate

In some ways yes, in other ways not at all. The anonymous nature of many web-based forums facilitates a lot of very unhealthy communities and toxic debate stages in my opinion. But of course the web also allows people from different backgrounds, means, cultures, etc… to all connect which is a wonderful thing.

The web is for all people

It should be. Agree 100%. However, there are still a lot of disadvantaged people, even here within the USA who do not have equal access to the modern web. Whether that be no internet access at all, or they have access but it is too slow to properly render much of what the web has to offer, the web may be for all, but not all have equitable access.

The web is secure and respects people’s privacy

Laughable. Sure, the “Internet” (to genericize all things) has made some strides implementing some form of SSL/TLS across the board (Thanks Let’s Encrypt!), which improves some security properties but the web being “secure” is a very loaded term and companies have done just about everything they can to ensure the web won’t respect your privacy. Assuming a site you are interacting with actually has an SSL cert, you still have to worry about…

  • Does that web server limit what SSL/TLS specs / cipher suites to those that are “secure”?
  • Does the web application have vulnerabilities?
  • Does the entity that owns/controls the web server properly secure/protect any data you share?
  • other things…
The web enables freedom of expression

This is true, to a point. As more of the “Internet” trends into the behemoth centralized platforms though (e.g. Facebook, Cloudflare, Google, etc…) and their content moderation/censorship policies go to work, you start to see a watering down of this particular freedom.

The web makes it possible to verify information

AI anyone? AI is really gutting this particular principle. Cryptographic signatures offer some non-repudiation properties I suppose?

The web enhances individuals’ control and power

It can. It should. But this requires people to take control, and not rely on centralized services solely for their means of communication, data storage, identity, etc… As the years pass, so does this knowledge. Less and less people have the will or know-how.

The web is an environmentally sustainable platform

AI. Ugh, again AI. The web is becoming overrun with slop. AI-generated slop, the generation of which takes a disastrous toll on our environment.

The web is transparent

Honestly, not sure what this principle entails?

The web is multi-browser, multi-OS, and multi-device

I actually don’t have too much to complain about here! I think the web is fairly ubiquitous across a variety of devices. Sure, there are some troublesome aspects of certain platform’s “walled gardens”, but I’m largely happy with the state of things in this regard.

The web can be consumed in any way that people choose

Not quite, but I don’t think it’s all bad. Browser issues abound, platform walled gardens, centralization of the web are all limiting factors. But hope remains!

I like the princples. But we have work to do!