This week marked the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the international standards body for the web. The W3C's birthday is on October 1, and a celebration event was held in California on September 24 during the annual technical plenary week of meetings. Many participants joined both in person and online.
Speakers at the event discussed the significant impact W3C has had on transforming the web from a niche application to an integral part of daily life. Nick Doty, senior technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), focused his talk on human rights and internet standards, reflecting on lessons learned over three decades and emphasizing ongoing efforts.
Doty highlighted that while basic web technology has been around for 35 years, it is through W3C's work since 1994 that necessary standards and interoperability have been established. He noted how this global communications network has benefited human rights by amplifying previously excluded voices and enabling activists to highlight abuses worldwide. However, he also pointed out risks such as privacy invasion, online harassment, censorship, misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda.
"The W3C’s history as a multistakeholder organization shows us a promising way forward," Doty said. He stressed that diverse perspectives from tech companies, governments, academics, and civil society organizations are crucial in addressing rights-related questions embedded in technological decisions.
Doty continued by discussing CDT's long-term involvement with W3C since its early days in the 1990s. He emphasized how web standards have supported various human rights outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights including freedom of expression, assembly, association, non-discrimination, access to public services, education, work opportunities, and cultural participation.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has recognized W3C's role in considering human rights impacts within technical standard setting. Despite these achievements, Doty acknowledged significant threats to human rights online such as surveillance, privacy threats, discrimination, harassment, abuse, censorship, security risks, safety concerns, dignity issues or sustainability challenges.
"Thirty years ago it might have been possible to unplug and leave the Web behind," Doty remarked. "Now...that’s simply not an option." He urged for standards development with human lives in mind due to their critical dependence on web technologies today.
Doty expressed optimism about technology's potential to bolster human rights but underscored that this requires continuous commitment from the community towards integrating human rights into web technology design. He praised ongoing initiatives like Ethical Web Principles; Privacy Principles; Web Content Accessibility Guidelines; Internationalization work; Guidelines for Human Rights Protocol and Architecture Considerations; and W3C’s Horizontal Review process but stressed more work remains.
In conclusion Doty quoted Article 29 from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “everyone has duties to the community.” He reiterated that celebrating achievements should go hand-in-hand with recognizing responsibilities towards supporting human rights within web technology development.
For those interested in further details about his presentation or other talks at W3C@30 event can watch them online via provided links.
Full Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LNUg5vDWDY
