HTTP Status Code 451
The Internet Engineering Standards Group (IESG), which is responsible for reviewing and updating the internet’s operating standards, has approved the publication of 451- “An HTTP Status Code to Report Legal Obstacles” in December 2015.
What are HTTP Status Codes?
The HTTP Status Codes are three-digit integer codes and they are used by the internet service providers (ISPs) to indicate success or failure or any other status when an internet user makes a request for resources from web-server.
What is HTTP Status Code 451?
The HTTP Status Code 451 was introduced by the software engineer Tim Bray. The code allows intermediaries (ISPs) to follow a standardised way to notify internet users when a website is blocked for legal reasons. The new code works as a machine-readable flag and it has immense potential as a tool for users and organisations who want to quantify and understand censorship on the internet. The code became official after two-years of discussions within technical communities and as a result of campaigns by civil society groups for transparency in labelling of internet censorship.
How the new code will be helpful?
The development of the new code is a huge step forward for capturing online censorship. The code allows intermediaries to be transparent in their compliance with the government or court orders on blocking websites. The new code will address the issue of the ISP’s using misleading status codes. Earlier, the ISPs were using inaccurate codes such as 404 ‘Not Found’ (It is used to indicate that the requested resource could not be found) or 403 ‘Forbidden’ (It is used to indicate that access to the requested resource is forbidden from being accessed). Implementation of this new standard will increase accountability of ISPs who have in the past targeted an entire domain instead of specified URL.
Adoption to the new code is optional. In case of India, there are no such laws that prevent intermediaries from adopting the new code. But, censorious governments may prohibit the use of the code by issuing an order that specifies not only that a page be blocked, but also precisely which HTTP return code should be used. Such actions should be viewed as violation of rights. Improving transparency around censorship is the only way to build trust between the government and its citizens about the laws and policies applicable to internet content.
