Ethical Web Principles

Regarding the W3C, which standardizes various web technologies, our CEO Taku Fujita stated the following in an interview article entitled "A Conversation with Mitsue-Links! The Secrets of Web Development and Continuous Improvement Support in the B2B Sector (in Japanese)", published on Dentsu B2B Initiative.

Mitsue-Links has long identified with W3C's philosophy of "leading the web to its full potential" and, among W3C-affiliated web development companies, is one of the longest-standing members.

The W3C publishes various types of documents, with one of the most well-known being the "Recommendation," which serves as a standard. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which provide guidelines for the accessibility of web content, were also established as a W3C Recommendation.

On the other hand, many documents that do not belong to the Standards category are called Notes, and within these Notes, there is a type of document known as a Statement. While Statements are different from official standards or technical specifications, they are still formally reviewed and approved within W3C before being published.

While the above was a rather long introduction, on December 12 of last year the W3C issued its first-ever Statement, titled "Ethical Web Principles".

• Ethical Web Principles is a W3C Statement
• W3C Statement on Ethical Web Principles guides the community to build a better web
• Ethical Web Principles: Building a better web

Since English is the official language of W3C, the Statement is written in English. However, a volunteer-created translation into Japanese (倫理上のWeb原則 — W3C TAG Ethical Web Principles) is also available. The 12 principles are written below.

1. There is one web
2. The web does not cause harm to society
3. The web supports healthy community and debate
4. The web is for all people
5. The web is secure and respects people's privacy
6. The web enables freedom of expression
7. The web makes it possible to verify information
8. The web enhances individuals' control and power
9. The web is an environmentally sustainable platform
10. The web is transparent
11. The web is multi-browser, multi-OS, and multi-device
12. The web can be consumed in any way that people choose

In recent times, the spread of misinformation and fake news has become an increasingly discussed issue in the media. In this context, the seventh point, "The web makes it possible to verify information," may stand out as particularly intriguing.

Since last year, I have been participating in the activities of the W3C's Sustainable Web Interest Group and, going forward, I believe that the ninth point, "The Web is an environmentally sustainable platform," will become even more important.

Furthermore, my personal favorites among the Principles are "The web is for all people," "The web is multi-browser, multi-OS, and multi-device," and "The web can be consumed in any way that people choose" – the reason being that the three are closely related to accessibility, a field our company has been committed to for a long time.

In any case, based on these 12 principles, W3C standards—and by extension, the web itself—will continue to take shape in the future. At Mitsue-Links, as a company whose core business is website development and operation, we believe it is essential to keep these 12 principles in mind as well as effectively leverage web technologies.

When looking back to 21 years ago, in the announcement we published when we first joined the W3C, we wrote the following:

We will continue our pursuit of superior quality work based on the W3C web standards, along with our contribution to the development and dissemination of Web technology as a W3C member.

In order to stay true to this mission, I believe it is essential to uphold the 12 principles mentioned above. Lastly, I wrote this Column with the hope of sharing the same ethical perspective - essentially, the fundamental values of the web - with our clients, with whom we collaborate on various website development-related and operation/management projects.