What organization develops internet standards like HTTP and TCP?

The organization that develops internet standards such as HTTP and TCP is the Internet Engineering Task Force, or IETF.

The IETF is an open standards organization responsible for technical standards used by the Internet protocol suite, including TCP/IP. Its work is published primarily through documents called Requests for Comments, or RFCs. Engineers, researchers, and other interested participants contribute through working groups and open review rather than through a traditional membership system.

The organization’s process emphasizes discussion, implementation, testing, and interoperability. A proposed specification can progress toward Internet Standard status when the technical community has reviewed it and working implementations demonstrate that it works in practice. HTTP and TCP have both been developed and refined through this broader IETF standards process.

The IETF is often confused with the W3C, which develops many web-platform standards, or ICANN, which coordinates domain names and other Internet identifiers. ISO is a separate international standards organization.