The web has transformed our lives, connecting people, ideas, and communities across the globe. But the web can also cause harm. The way we design web features and technologies can either mitigate or enable that harm. Technology is not ethically or morally neutral. Our technical design choices are ethical choices, whether we like it or not. That’s why the W3C’s Ethical Web Principles are so important. I've been working on these principles since 2019 when I was inspired to start thinking about how we could apply an ethical framework to the way we develop web specifications. W3C published them last week as their first W3C Statement.
But principles alone aren’t enough. How do we make sure these ideals translate into real-world impact? At W3C, this happens through rigorous review processes—specifically wide review and design review.
From words to action: How review processes enforce ethics
Simply putting out a document with ethical principles can’t be the end of it. That is a route to “ethics washing”. Ethics washing refers to the practice of presenting ethical principles, commitments, or guidelines without implementing or enforcing them effectively, often to enhance public image or avoid criticism without making substantive changes. This concept is discussed critically in literature such as Elettra Bietti's paper, "From Ethics Washing to Ethics Bashing: A View on Tech Ethics from Within Moral Philosophy," published in the Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAT* 2020). Elettra quite rightly calls out ethics washing (“shallow appearances of ethical behavior”) as a bad practice.
So how can we ensure that with the publication of the W3C Ethical Web Principles we are not falling into that trap? How can we embed these principles into the processes that shape the Web’s architecture?
Firstly, we need to recognize that the Ethical Web Principles were not created from nowhere. Hadley Beeman pointed out in her 2019 post on their first publication, these principles are reflecting how we already work. They are a reflection of the culture of the W3C community. The process of documenting them in simple, accessible language is a way to restate our assumptions, to recommit to the principles we already hold dear, and do so in one easily referenceable place.
Secondly, we need to infuse these principles into wide review. In W3C, we have both a culture and a process for wide review – the practice of ensuring work is reviewed across different web community stakeholders. W3C is a consensus-based organization, and you can’t achieve consensus without sharing your work with others, getting their feedback, and allowing that feedback to shape your work.
Within wide review, the Technical Architecture Group (TAG) performs design review, where groups come to us for architectural and design guidance. Along with providing technical design guidance, the TAG measures proposals against our core values like privacy, security, and accessibility—all of which are grounded in the Ethical Web Principles. If something doesn't look right, the TAG can—and often does—send it back to be reworked.
Connecting principles to practice: Privacy and web platform design principles
The Ethical Web Principles also inspire other guidance documents that provide more actionable advice, like the Web Platform Design Principles and Privacy Principles. These documents translate the higher level principles into concrete advice for specification authors. Our first design principle, the priority of constituencies, states “put user needs first.” That guidance refers back to the Ethical Web Principles on not causing harm to society and enhancing individuals’ control and power.
This kind of practical guidance bridges the gap between ethics and execution, ensuring that our standards serve real-world needs without compromising core values.
Centering human rights
Ethics in web standards isn’t just about avoiding harm. It’s about actively building a web that works for everyone, grounded in respect for human rights. The W3C’s processes—wide review, design review, and actionable guidance—ensure the web remains a force for good. In a world where technology often undermines rights, the web can and must do better.
A call to action for web developers and advocates
The Ethical Web Principles are as much a guide in ethical thinking for our work in the W3C community as they are across the web industry. This isn’t a one-and-done effort. And we can’t do this alone. We need your help. If the Ethical Web Principles resonates with you, let it (and other relevant documents such as our privacy principles) guide how you design web products and services. And while you’re at it, please get involved in web standards. Join a group. Comment on an issue. Add your voice. And call us out when it seems we’re not living up to our goals.
Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash