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.
Did you know? @IETF RFC7725 describes HTTP 451, a new status code that seeks to shed light on instances of online censorship. Today we present our work on this spec at the Brussels meeting on standards setting organizationshttps://t.co/qjMwFaa9G5
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) May 23, 2018
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.


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.
Presentation and demo by @ntblk on measurements of prevalence of HTTP Status Code 451 at #IETF101 pic.twitter.com/eHnteX2rUZ
— ᗪᖇ. ᑎIEᒪᔕ ✊???♠️ (@nielstenoever) March 19, 2018
Report: #LGBTI sections disappear as Reddit complies with 100% of #Turkey censorship ordershttps://t.co/BkcQDlINFr pic.twitter.com/pZUH19c45F
— Turkey Blocks (@TurkeyBlocks) April 3, 2017
It's time to design internet protocols around #HumanRights; I explain why in the final print edition of @IETFjournalhttps://t.co/CYRxV1EJsF pic.twitter.com/u8X2uIEjRR
— Alp Toker (@atoker) November 6, 2017