◆ Semantic Web Catalogue

Problem thread

Who issues your name online?

Should people be known online by accounts that platforms issue, or by names they control themselves?

issue
identification
also governance, topology
status
open
steps
11, 2000–2026
threads
all problem threads

The semantic web expected people to describe themselves in their own documents, with FOAF profiles, XFN links and OpenID URLs they controlled. Instead, profiles on Myspace, Facebook and Twitter became the pages people pointed to, and 'Log in with Facebook' became the login. Even Wikidata now records X, Facebook and Instagram usernames for hundreds of thousands of people. Those names change, close or go behind paywalls at one company's choice; domain-name handles and decentralized identifiers try to give them back to their holders.

Lineage

  1. 2000
    proposes standard ★ seminal
    FOAF

    People publish a description of themselves and the people they know in their own documents, named with their own URIs. [src]

  2. 2003
    proposes standard
    XFN

    Links on a personal site say how its author relates to the person at the other end, such as friend or colleague, in plain HTML. [src]

  3. Aug 2003
    workaround project
    Myspace

    A profile on a platform becomes the page that friends, bands and fans point to; the name and the page belong to the platform. [src]

  4. May 2005
    proposes standard
    OpenID

    Sign in anywhere with a URL you control instead of an account on each site. [src]

  5. 17 Aug 2007
    poses writing
    Thoughts on the Social Graph

    Fitzpatrick and Recordon argue that who knows whom should be an open asset that people can take from one network to another, not something each site locks in. [src1][src2]

  6. 1 Feb 2008
    proposes project
    Google Social Graph API

    Google crawls XFN and FOAF markup to show who links to whom across the open Web; it closes in 2012 for lack of use. [src1][src2]

  7. Dec 2008
    workaround project
    Log in with Facebook

    One platform account becomes the login across thousands of other sites. [src]

  8. Jun 2011
    proposes project
    IndieWeb

    Use your own domain as your identity and link your platform profiles back to it, so the name outlasts any one service. [src1][src2]

  9. 19 Jul 2022
    proposes standard ★ seminal
    Decentralized Identifiers

    Identifiers that their holder creates and controls, with no registry or platform in the middle. [src]

  10. 28 Apr 2023
    proposes standard
    AT Protocol

    Bluesky lets people use a domain name they own as their handle, backed by a DID, so they can change provider and keep their name. [src1][src2]

  11. 23 Oct 2026
    measures project ★ seminal
    Wikidata

    Wikidata records X usernames on about 467,000 items, Facebook usernames on 426,000 and Instagram usernames on 409,000, against 4.8 million VIAF library identifiers. [src1][src2][src3]

Recent signals

Dated events that show the problem moving, newest last.

  1. 4 Apr 2018

    After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook restricts what apps can read through its APIs. Facebook[src]

  2. 2 Feb 2023

    Twitter announces the end of free access to its API from 9 February 2023. Twitter[src]

  3. Jul 2023

    Twitter is renamed X; its web address later moves from twitter.com to x.com. Twitter[src]

Open now

Under each question, the answers people have put forward or built. The catalogue gives no odds on them.

  • Can people keep one name across platforms without any platform owning it? [src1][src2][src3]
    Domain names, DIDs and rel=me links each offer a name the holder controls, but most people still use the handle each platform issues.
    • Your domain name is your handle. AT Protocol
      Bluesky and the IndieWeb both let a domain the person owns stand as their identity.[src1][src2]
    • Identifiers the holder creates, resolved without a registry. Decentralized Identifiers
      DIDs, whose 1.1 version reached W3C Candidate Recommendation in 2026.[src]
    • Governments issue the identity.
      EU member states must offer citizens digital identity wallets by the end of 2026.[src]
  • Should open registries such as Wikidata rely on names that a company can change or revoke? [src1][src2]
    Wikidata treats platform usernames as identifiers for people alongside library authorities, and also records addresses on the decentralized Mastodon network.
    • Record every name a person goes by, platform and open alike, and let users choose. Wikidata
      Wikidata keeps X, Facebook and Instagram usernames next to VIAF and Mastodon addresses.[src1][src2]

Forces

Pressures that push this problem one way or another, as their sources argue them. All forces

Decision points

Dated moments when a decision or a deadline can change the outcome.

  1. 24 Dec 2026
    EU digital identity wallets due law

    Each EU member state must make at least one certified European Digital Identity Wallet available.[src]

  2. 31 Jan 2027
    DID Working Group charter ends charter

    The W3C group behind DID 1.1 and DID Resolution is chartered until this date.[src]

How to contribute