New HTTP status code for censored web pages
The Internet Engineering Steering Group has approved a new HTTP code to differentiate between web pages which cannot be shown for technical reasons and others which are unavailable for non-technical reasons, such as governmental censorship. While the current 404 error reports that a page has not been found, and 403 is used to signal “forbidden” pages, the new 451 code is aimed to distinguish pages unavailable due to censorhip. Mark Nottingham, chair the IETF HTTP Working Group, noted that 451 will likely be used more on Web servers than by network-based intermediaries, as websites including Twitter, Facebook, Google and Github are forced to censor content in certain countries and jurisdictions. More details on Zdnet.
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