Google is trying to kill the Open Web Using the proposed “Web Environment Integrity” means websites can select on which devices (browsers) they wish to be displayed, and can refuse service to other devices. It binds client side software to a website, creating a silo’d app.
Web Environment Integrity on GitHub This penalizes platforms on which the preferred client side software is not available.
This is an issue for accessibility and inclusion, in particular when the reason the software is not available is tied to the needs of marginalized groups, such as when poverty makes it impossible to own sufficiently modern devices, etc.
“Web Environment Integrity” is a deeply #antisocial proposal, and goes counter to the design principles of the web.
In all honesty, this move by Google is hardly surprising. They’ve been trying to capture the web as their own platform for a long time. This is just the latest battle.
But it also marks a particularly perverse point, in how the proposal admits it exists primarily to extract value from people. People mining at its worst.
Remember when their motto was “Don’t be Evil?”
Governments need to step the fuck in. Places like Norway should create a decentralised web ASAP, and other European countries should join. Like for example how the Dutch government just created a Mastodon instance for gov communication.
The EU is a lumbering beast but I am confident that this will not slip under their radar.