NetBlocks presents HTTP 451 standards work at Brussels SSO conference

Posted on

BRUSSELS – Wednesday, May 23, NetBlocks is presenting the development and implementation of HTTP status code 451 at the Conference on Multistakeholder Participation in Global Internet Standards Setting hosted by the Exeter University Department of Politics and ESRC.

The event will bring together some 45 participants in attendance including government and European Commission representatives as well as academics, standards setting organisation participants and civil society representatives.

HTTP 451 is a technical measure which seeks to add transparency around attempts to limit access to information on the web. Specified in IETF RFC7725, the new code is named in honour of Ray Bradbury’s classic novel Fahrenheit 451 in which books are banned and any found are burned.

NetBlocks Executive Director Alp Toker presented the state of civil society participation at IETF and a case study of the ongoing RFC7725 work
Corinne Cath of the University of Oxford outlined the mission and status of the Human Rights Protocol Considerations research group

As part of its mission to support an open and inclusive digital future, NetBlocks participates in a loose-knit alliance of civil society groups that is working to extend human rights considerations to internet protocol design at the Internet Engineering Task Force.

Topics discussed include the measurement system built to gauge the adoption and relevance of HTTP 451 specification, which was recognised Best New Work by an independent panel of judges at the 99th meeting of the IETF in Prague, 2017. The tool continues to be hosted and developed within the framework of the NetBlocks Open Source Project.