Major US Websites Plan to “Go Slow” on September 10, 2014 to Protest Potential Net Neutrality Rule Changes by FCC

Thursday, September 4th, 2014

Internet slow lane

On September 10, 2014, several major websites including Etsy, Foursquare, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Reddit and Vimeo will install a widget on their sites to show how they believe the internet would look if the FCC overturns net neutrality rules.

According to The Guardian, the FCC is currently redrawing its rules after a series of legal challenges from cable and telecoms companies undermined its authority to regulate the internet. One proposal could allow internet service providers to offer “fast lanes” to higher paying customers, a move critics charge would break net neutrality — the principle that all traffic is treated equally online.

Evan Greer, co-founder of Fight for the Future, a pressure group helping to organize the protest day, has this to say:

“Net neutrality is tough to explain to people, so we wanted to organize an action that actually shows the world what’s at stake. I think the three most hated words on the internet right now are ‘Please wait, loading … ’ Unless internet users unite in defense of net neutrality, we could be seeing those dreaded ‘loading’ wheels a lot more often on some of our favorite websites, while monopolistic companies get to decide which content gets seen by the most people.”

In addition to the above mentioned sites, popular porn sites Pornhub, Youporn, and Redtube will also be taking part, according to Reddit user Katie_Pornhub (SFW link).

For more info, click here, and be sure to watch John Oliver’s incredible rant on net neutrality that aired on his show in June 2014.

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