If you work in government and are asked to remove content from websites (as a result of executive orders), please use the HTTP status code 451 instead of 404.
451 is the correct status code to use for these cases, and you'll be doing the rest of the country a service by using it.
Addendum: you should also include a Link header with the link relation "blocked-by" that "Identifies the entity that blocks access to a resource following receipt of a legal demand."
This entry was edited (1 month ago)
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Ben Ramsey
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •I just noticed the Monty Python joke @timbray managed to include in that RFC. 🤣
Thank you, Tim!
Derick Rethans
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Wolf480pl
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •wait but you mean anyone maintaining a website of a government agency?
Or do you mean people responsible for implementing govt-mandated blocking of 3rd party web content?
If the latter, I'd think the people who do that work for ISPs, not governments?
ch0ccyra1n
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •ferricoxide
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Ben Companjen 🟥
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •shimst3r is now on famichiki
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •reading these RFCs makes me realise how precious the internet is.
I yearn for a world where we can all be this professional and unhinged at the same time, connecting our worlds through hypertext and without JavaScript tracking popups.
M.S. Bellows, Jr.
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Wulfy
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •"Legal demand"
Ha!
"DO IT OR LOSE YOUR JOB!"
Or more like it it's one of Musk Muppets who's got the passwords.
Graham Skeats #FBPPR🏴🇺🇦
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •dilbert 1
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Arthur_500
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Why would this be different from other directives?
This seems to indicate the information was legally a problem, for example false and misleading.
PostcardsFromParadise
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •HTTP status code 451:
Unavailable for Legal Reasons
HTTP status code 404:
Does not exist, has moved or is broken
🐜
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •tTh
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons | HTTP Cats
http.catJRaccoon
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •This is mostly unnecessary hairsplitting, but I think it could be argued that semantically 451 is the correct code when the content is not removed but is blocked for YOU but not necessarily for everybody else (using geolocation or something else). I think that's why it's a 4xx client error.
So, if the pages are made unavailable for everybody (in other words, removed), I would say 404 is the correct code. Do I actually care? Absolutely not xD
Maj - Michele Ann Jenkins 🇨🇦
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Kevin Lyda
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Jan
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •@briankrebs
kkeller
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •ragman
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •While I appreciate the cleverness of this idea, we need to do more.
If you're being forced to remove content from websites, please consider archiving the site yourself first.
Relatedly, here's a six minute video about Rene Carmille, a French archivist who foiled Nazi attempts to identity Jewish people:
youtube.com/watch?v=tOEFO1kU8r…
Interregnum | the first hacker
YouTubeJim
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Doug Grinbergs
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_451
Obstruct, resist the MAGAfascists!✊🤘🖖
HTTP response status code
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Masq31 || Technomancer IRL
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •beitmenotyou
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •MelissaC
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Nicky McCurdy
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •SpaceLifeForm
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •And change the text to read:
<head><title>Unavailable For Illegal Reasons
delProfundo
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Darren du Nord
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •tatumon
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •George Ellenburg (he/him/his)
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •author_is_ShrikeTron🔠💉x7
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •cy
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Androcat
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Sensitive content
JessTheBean
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Mike Spooner
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Justin Macleod
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •snowyfox
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Sensitive content
snowyfox
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •Sensitive content
Andreas, DJ3EI, he/him
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •True: "you'll be doing the rest of the country a service by using it"
Also true, most likely: "you'll be doing the rest of the world a service by using it"
@ramsey
ADisorderlyFashion
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •benni
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •bufalo1973
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •aJun
in reply to Ben Ramsey • • •rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc7725.htm…
5. Security Considerations
Clients cannot rely upon the use of the 451 status code. It is possible that certain legal authorities might wish to avoid transparency, and not only demand the restriction of access to certain resources, but also avoid disclosing that the demand was made.
RFC 7725: An HTTP Status Code to Report Legal Obstacles
www.rfc-editor.org