W3C TAG Ethical Web Principles

The web should be a platform that helps people and provides a net positive social benefit. As we continue to evolve the web platform, we must therefore consider the ethical consequences of our work. The following document sets out ethical principles that will drive the TAG's continuing work in this direction.

This document is a draft Technical Architecture Group (TAG) Finding. It does not contain any normative content. This document reflects the consensus of the TAG at the time of publication. It will continue to evolve and the TAG will issue updates as often as needed.

## Introduction {#intro} The web should empower an equitable, informed and interconnected society. It has been, and should continue to be, designed to enable communication and knowledge-sharing for everyone. In order for the web to continue to be beneficial to society, we need to include ethical thinking when we build web technologies, applications, and sites. The web is made up of a number of technologies and technical standards. HTML, CSS and JavaScript are often thought of as the web's core set of technologies but there are a raft of other technologies, standards, languages and APIs that come together to form the "web platform." In the 30 years since development of the web began, it has become clear that the web platform can often be used in ways that subvert its original mission, or even be used to cause harm. The web should be a platform that helps people and provides a net positive social benefit. As we continue to evolve the web platform, we must therefore consider the ethical implications of our work. The web must be for good. One of the web platform's differentiators has always been a strong ethical framework; for example an emphasis on [internationalization](https://www.w3.org/International/), [accessibility](https://www.w3.org/WAI/), [privacy](https://www.w3.org/Privacy/), and [security](https://www.w3.org/Security/). Web technologies are also offered [royalty free](https://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy/) to enable open source implementation. These are often cited as some of the strengths of the web. The architecture of the web is designed with the important notion of different classes of application that retrieve and process content, and represent the needs of the application's users. This includes web browsers, web-hosted applications such as search engines, and software that acts on web resources. This lends itself well towards empowering people by allowing them to choose the browser, search engine, or other application that best meets their needs (for example, with strong privacy protections). The web should also support human rights, dignity and personal agency. We need to put internationally recognized human rights at the core of the web platform [[?UDHR]]. And we need to promote ethical thinking across the web industry to reinforce this approach. The principles in this document are deliberately unordered, and many are interconnected with each other. While all of the principles together aim to provide pillars that collectively support a web that is beneficial for society, there are cases where upholding one principle may diminish the efficacy of another principle. Thus in applying these principles, there are benefits and tradeoffs that may need to be carefully balanced. When faced with principles which appear to be in conflict with one another, it is important to consider the context in which a particular technology is being applied, the expected audience(s) for the technology, who the technology benefits and who it may disadvantage, and any power dynamics involved (see also the priority of constituencies). The purpose of this document is to inform TAG review of new specifications and candidate additions to published recommendations, and to inform other documents such as the [[[Design-Principles]]], [[[security-privacy-questionnaire]]] or other similar checklists and sets of principles used by specification authors and editors. It also serves to raise awareness of the ethical responsibilities of web makers. ## Principles

There is one web

When we are adding new web technologies and platforms, we will build them to cross regional and national boundaries. People in one location should be able to view web pages from anywhere that is connected to the web.

The web should not cause harm to society

When we are adding a feature or technology to the web, we will consider what harm it could do to society or groups, especially to vulnerable people. We will prioritize potential benefits for web users over potential benefits to web developers, content providers, user agents, advertisers or others in the ecosystem, in line with the priority of constituencies. We will ensure the requirements and views of marginalized communities and underrepresented groups are heard and respected. We will build new web technologies in a collaborative manner according to open processes (for example, the W3C process), and adhering to codes of conduct (such as the W3C Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct).

We are building technologies and platforms for distributing ideas, for virtual interaction, and for mass collaboration on any topic. While those tools can be used for good, they can also be used for spreading misinformation, revealing private personal information (doxing), harassment, and persecution. We will consider these risks in the work we do, and will build web technologies and platforms that respect individuals' rights and provide features to empower them against dangers like these.

The web is for all people

Anyone should be able to meaningfully participate in the creation of specifications, user agents, and content, and the platform should enable a fully accessible end user experience. We will build internationalization and localization capabilities into our specifications and websites. We will accommodate people on low bandwidth networks and with low specification equipment. The web platform and the tools we use to create it must be accessible to people with disabilities, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological disabilities.

Security and privacy are essential

When we add features to the web platform, we are making decisions that may change the ability of people to protect their personal data. This data includes their conversations, their financial transactions and how they live their lives. We will start by creating web technologies that create as few risks as possible, and will make sure people understand what risks they are taking when they use the web.

The web must enable freedom of expression

We will create web technologies and platforms that encourage free expression, where that does not contravene other human rights. Our work should not enable state censorship, surveillance or other practices that seek to limit this freedom. This principle must be balanced with respect for other human rights, and does not imply that individual services on the web must therefore support all speech. (For example: hate speech, harassment or abuse may reasonably be denied a platform).

The web must make it possible for people to verify the information they see

We have a responsibility to build web technologies to counter misinformation, allowing information sources to be traceable and facts to be checkable. The concept of origin and source is core to the web's security model. We will make sure the new web technologies we create do not work against this architectural principle.

The web must enhance individuals' control and power

We recognize that web technologies can be used to manipulate and deceive people, complicate isolation, and encourage addictive behaviors. We seek to mitigate against these potential abuses and patterns when creating new technologies and platforms, and avoid introducing technologies that increase the chance of people being harmed in this way. As part of this, we favor a decentralized web architecture that minimizes single points of failure and single points of control. We will also build web technologies for individual developers as well for developers at large companies and organizations. The web should enable do-it-yourself developers.

The web must be an environmentally sustainable platform

Web technologies may have overall positive environmental impacts as well as negative impacts, and these can change over time and vary geographically as both web and environmental technologies develop. We will endeavor not to do further harm to the environment when we introduce new technologies to the web, and keep in mind that people most affected by the environmental consequences of new technologies may not be those who benefit from the features introduced. This includes, but is not limited to, lowering carbon emissions by minimizing data storage and processing requirements, as well as reducing electronic waste by maximizing the lifespan of physical devices through backwards compatibility.

The web is transparent

The web was built on a "view source" principle, currently realized through robust developer tools built into many browsers. We will always make sure it is possible to determine how a web application was built and how the code works. Furthermore, we will always make sure it is possible to audit and inspect web applications and underlying software for security, privacy or other considerations.

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

We will not create web technologies that encourage the creation of websites that work only in one browser, or only on particular hardware. We expect that content provided by accessing a URL should yield a thematically consistent experience when someone is accessing it from different devices. The existence of multiple interoperable implementations enables competition, and thus a variety of choices for web users.

People should be able to render web content as they want

People must be able to change web pages according to their needs. For example, people should be able to install style sheets, assistive browser extensions, and blockers of unwanted content or scripts or auto-played videos. We will build features and write specifications that respect peoples' agency, and will create user agents to represent those preferences on the web user's behalf.