Following the successful launch of the Internet Standards Almanac, ARTICLE 19 is proud to present Guess Who! – an update to the digital interactive tool, lifting the lid on which actors hold the most power in the standardisation of internet infrastructure.
Technical standardisation is a critical stage in the design and development of internet infrastructure technologies, before they are deployed in the real world. Standards set within Standard Developing Organisations (SDOs) shape privacy, anonymity and data governance – they have profound impact on all internet users, influencing the extent to which technologies enable or threaten our rights.
Technical standardisation is a critical stage in the design and development of internet infrastructure technologies, before they are deployed in the real world. Standards set within Standard Developing Organisations (SDOs) shape privacy, anonymity and data governance – they have profound impact on all internet users, influencing the extent to which technologies enable or threaten our rights.
These technical standards have been adopted in our everyday use of the internet – from the IEEE’s 802.11 standard which allows laptops and smartphones to connect via WiFi to the IETF’s RFC 2818 that defined the https protocol, making browsing and sharing information on the internet more secure by encrypting user data.
In theory, SDOs aim to be open and transparent, and make decisions based on consensus. In reality however, a handful of actors tends to dominate the standard setting processes. Often, it’s the industry heavyweights (such as Google, Microsoft or Apple), whose outsized influence determines which ideas and contributions are considered, and which are sidelined. This makes it difficult for civil society and human rights groups to get a seat at the table and shape outcomes.
ARTICLE 19’s Guess Who! aims to shine a light on which actors dominate the development of technical standards in three key SDOs – the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Research Task Force (IRTF), and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
Our tool helps answers three key questions:
- Who leads? Which actors dominate formal leadership positions, including chairing various working groups and committees.
- Who speaks? Which actors dominate discussions and mailing lists.
- Who publishes? Which actors author the largest number of technical standards.
Armed with this information, civil society can better understand which industry actors are driving decisions and identify groups and committees where these actors are likely to standardise technologies that could harm human rights. Using our tool, civil society will be able to better strategise on how to push back against specific technologies and identify potential allies.
By knowing who really dominates, we can all better engage in the processes and push for internet standards that encode and protect human rights.