Read why “Web Environment Integrity” is terrible, and why we must vocally oppose it now. Google’s latest maneuver, if we don’t act to stop it, threatens our freedom to explore the Internet with browsers of our choice.
Editorial note: For greater visibility, this article has been published here, on fsf.org. You can also find it on defectivebydesign.org, which also has other DRM-related articles and materials.
Using a free browser is now more important than ever. We’ve written
recently on this topic, but the issue we wrote about there was
minor compared to the gross injustice Google is now attempting to
force down the throats of web users around the world. The so-called
“Web Environment Integrity” (WEI) is the worst stunt we’ve seen from
them in some time. Beginning its life as an innocuous, if worrying,
policy document posted to Microsoft GitHub, Google has now
fast-tracked its development into their Chromium browser. At its
current rate of progress, WEI will be upon us in no time.
By giving developers an API through which they can approve certain
browser configurations while forbidding others, WEI is a tremendous
step t
