The Mozilla Manifesto

The Mozilla Manifesto, written in 2007, outlines our core principles. The Pledge for a Healthy Internet was written as an addendum to the Manifesto in 2017 to reflect our deep commitment to ensuring the internet serves the needs of humans and humanity as a whole. Together, these two documents guide all work across Mozilla — what we build, what we fund and how we work together as a community.

Introduction

The internet is becoming an increasingly important part of our lives.

The Mozilla Project is a global community of people who believe that openness, innovation, and opportunity are key to the continued health of the internet. We have worked together since 1998 to ensure that the internet is developed in a way that benefits everyone. We are best known for creating the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

The Mozilla Project uses a community-based approach to create world-class open source software and to develop new types of collaborative activities. We create communities of people involved in making the internet experience better for all of us.

As a result of these efforts, we have distilled a set of principles that we believe are critical for the internet to continue to benefit the public good as well as commercial aspects of life. We set out these principles below.

The goals for the Manifesto are to:

  1. articulate a vision for the internet that Mozilla participants want Mozilla Foundation to pursue;
  2. speak to people whether or not they have a technical background;
  3. make Mozilla contributors proud of what we’re doing and motivate us to continue; and
  4. provide a framework for other people to advance this vision of the internet.

These principles will not come to life on their own. People are needed to make the internet open and participatory - people acting as individuals, working together in groups, and leading others. Mozilla Foundation is committed to advancing the principles set out in the Mozilla Manifesto. We invite others to join us and make the internet an ever better place for everyone.

Principles

  1. Principle 1
    The internet is an integral part of modern life—a key component in education, communication, collaboration, business, entertainment and society as a whole.
  2. Principle 2
    The internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.
  3. Principle 3
    The internet must enrich the lives of individual human beings.
  4. Principle 4
    Individuals’ security and privacy on the internet are fundamental and must not be treated as optional.
  5. Principle 5
    Individuals must have the ability to shape the internet and their own experiences on it.
  6. Principle 6
    The effectiveness of the internet as a public resource depends upon interoperability (protocols, data formats, content), innovation and decentralized participation worldwide.
  7. Principle 7
    Free and open source software promotes the development of the internet as a public resource.
  8. Principle 8
    Transparent community-based processes promote participation, accountability and trust.
  9. Principle 9
    Commercial involvement in the development of the internet brings many benefits; a balance between commercial profit and public benefit is critical.
  10. Principle 10
    Magnifying the public benefit aspects of the internet is an important goal, worthy of time, attention and commitment.

Pledge for a Healthy Internet

The open, global internet is the most powerful communication and collaboration resource we have ever seen. It embodies some of our deepest hopes for human progress. It enables new opportunities for learning, building a sense of shared humanity, and solving the pressing problems facing people everywhere.

Over the last decade we have seen this promise fulfilled in many ways. We have also seen the power of the internet used to magnify divisiveness, incite violence, promote hatred, and intentionally manipulate fact and reality. We have learned that we should more explicitly set out our aspirations for the human experience of the internet. We do so now.

Our Commitments

  1. Commitment 1
    We are committed to an internet that includes all the peoples of the earth — where a person’s demographic characteristics do not determine their online access, opportunities, or quality of experience.
  2. Commitment 2
    We are committed to an internet that promotes civil discourse, human dignity, and individual expression.
  3. Commitment 3
    We are committed to an internet that elevates critical thinking, reasoned argument, shared knowledge, and verifiable facts.
  4. Commitment 4
    We are committed to an internet that catalyzes collaboration among diverse communities working together for the common good.

Mozilla's Pledge

Across the Mozilla Project and every organization in the Mozilla family, we pledge to support the Mozilla Manifesto in its activities. Specifically, we will:

  • build and enable open-source technologies and communities that support the Manifesto’s principles;
  • build and deliver great consumer products that support the Manifesto’s principles;
  • use the Mozilla assets (intellectual property such as copyrights and trademarks, infrastructure, funds, and reputation) to keep the internet an open platform;
  • promote models for creating economic value for the public benefit; and
  • promote the Mozilla Manifesto principles in public discourse and within the internet industry.

We Need You To Advance the Manifesto

An internet with these qualities will not come to life on its own. People and organizations must embed these aspirations into internet technology and into the human experience with the internet. The Mozilla Manifesto and Addendum represent Mozilla's commitment to advancing these aspirations. Mozilla works with people and organizations everywhere who want to make the internet an even better place for everyone.

If you share this goal, let us know how we can help.

And, of course, we make Firefox and Thunderbird. All of this is aimed at helping people make the internet a healthy place.