Ethical Web Principles, as revised by Yet Another Tommy

should supersede the W3C version...

These are suggested as changes to the W3C's Ethical Web Principles:

<the following should be inserted, as section 1.2 Definitions>

• There are four kinds of Law:

  • Eternal Law is God’s purpose and plan for all things. Here we can define God as what is good and what is good as what is God. Eternal Law will always be a mystery to humans although we humans believe we are afforded occasional glimpses into it.

  • Divine Law consists of the occasional glimpses we humans believe we are afforded into Eternal Law. Example: “Thou shalt not kill.”

  • Natural Law is what is reasonable, that is, what is consistent with human reasoning.

  • Human Law is what is necessary for humans to live together and protect, preserve and perpetuate human life.

<the following should be inserted, as section 2.1>

• The web is for people

  The web is intended to advance the interests and rights of people, not things, not non-human living organisms, and not human organizations. To the extent these other things or creatures are facilitated or not, it is only to advance the interests and rights of people as individuals, in accordance with natural and human law, with guidance from divine law.

<the following should replace what was section 2.3, “The web supports healthy community and debate”>

• The web supports healthy community and debate

  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 fraud, defamation, 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 following should replace what was section 2.6, “The web enables freedom of expression”>

• The web enables freedom of expression

  We will create web technologies and platforms that encourage free expression, where it does not fall within limited categories of defamation or fraud. Our work should not enable racketeering, state censorship, surveillance or other practices that seek to limit this freedom. This principle must be balanced with respect for natural and human law.

<the following should replace what was section 2.7 “The web must make it possible for people to verify information and assess the trustworthiness of its source”>

• The web must make it possible for people to verify information and assess the trustworthiness of its source

  Society relies on the integrity of public information. We have a responsibility to build web technologies to counter defamation, fraud, propaganda, and racketeering, and to maintain the integrity of information for public good. The public needs verifiable source and context information to recognize trustworthy web publishers and content. The concept of origin and its relationship with information sources are core to the web's security model.

<the following should replace what was section 2.9 “The web is an environmentally sustainable platform”>

• The web is an environmentally stable 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, reducing electronic waste by maximizing the lifespan of physical devices through backwards compatibility.