Internet Slowdown Day

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A "spinning wheel of death" used to promote Internet Slowdown Day InternetSlowdown Day.gif
A "spinning wheel of death" used to promote Internet Slowdown Day

Internet Slowdown Day, part of the "Battle for the Net" initiative, [1] was a series of protests against the repeal of net neutrality laws coordinated by websites and advocacy groups in the United States occurring on September 10, 2014. [2] The official site explains: "On September 10th, sites across the web will display an alert with a symbolic 'loading' symbol (the proverbial 'spinning wheel of death') and promote a call to action for users to push comments to the FCC, Congress, and the White House." [3]

Contents

Background

Internet Slowdown Day was held to raise public awareness and support for net neutrality, the principle that all internet traffic should be treated equally without discrimination or favoritism. This means that internet service providers (ISPs) can't block or prioritize certain websites simply because of their content or publisher. [4]

Many ISPs endorse eliminating net neutrality, arguing that net neutrality laws are unnecessary and that ISPs should have more control over their own networks. ISPs also argue that net neutrality increases consumer costs while reducing internet access due to reduced investment in internet services. ISPs claim that net neutrality will prevent them from charging large companies extra fees for the bandwidth they use, placing the costs of building the additional bandwidth capacity onto consumers.

Supporters of net neutrality worry that eliminating net neutrality would threaten free speech on the internet, by allowing ISPs to block access to any website they want. Proponents of net neutrality also argue that it protects consumers by preventing ISPs from separating Internet traffic into a "fast lane" (for those companies who can afford to pay to have their content delivered at premium speeds) and a "slow lane" (for everyone else's websites). [1] [5]

In April 2014, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed new rules which would allow ISPs to offer "paid prioritization" to companies, allowing them to purchase faster internet speeds. Internet Slowdown Day organizer Fight for the Future argued that the proposed rules would allow ISPs "to create a two-tiered Internet, with slow lanes (for most of us) and fast lanes (for wealthy corporations that are willing to pay fees in exchange for fast service)." The organization also argued that the rules would hand power to Internet service providers and allow them to "discriminate against online content and applications." [6]

Protest on September 10, 2014 ("Internet Slowdown Day")

Contrary to what the name suggests, Internet Slowdown Day didn't actually slow down the Internet or any of the websites involved. Instead, participating websites displayed the "loading" icon to simulate what the Internet would look like if net neutrality laws were repealed and if ISPs were allowed to prioritize certain websites over others. Participating websites also displayed messages explaining the importance of net neutrality and that "'slow lanes' were about to be imposed on parts of the Internet." [7] Site visitors were then directed to click on the "loading" icon which brought them directly to the FCC page, allowing them to submit complaints in favor of net neutrality.

Impact of Internet Slowdown Day

Three million comments were sent to the FCC after Internet Slowdown Day, and an overwhelming majority showed strong public support for net neutrality. [1] [8] [9] FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler also said he personally doesn't like "the idea that the Internet could be divided into haves and have-nots, and I will to work to make sure that does not happen." [10]

In February 2015, the FCC voted 3-2 to reclassify the Internet as a public utility and impose rules that prevent ISPs from restricting access to certain websites and selling higher internet speeds to their clients. [11] [12]

Internet Slowdown Day was compared to the January 18, 2012 "Internet Blackout Day," where some of the most popular websites, including Reddit and Wikipedia, went "dark" to protest against SOPA and PIPA, two laws that would give authorities greater powers to shut down websites accused of copyright infringement. [13] The Internet Blackout Day protests generated significant public awareness and backlash which contributed to the eventual withdrawal of the legislation. According to the protesters, the proposed legislation endangered free speech on the Internet. [2] [14] [15]

Participants

Participants of Internet Slowdown Day included streaming sites Netflix and Vimeo, image hosting sites Imgur and Tumblr, new sites Digg and Reddit, as well as other popular sites such as Automattic, Dwolla, Etsy, Foursquare, Grooveshark, I Can Has Cheezburger?, Kickstarter, Meetup, Mozilla, Namecheap, Twitter, Upworthy, Urban Dictionary, and Wikia. [16] [1] [17] At least 76 different websites took part in the protest. [15]

This day forced a lot of prominent names like Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Berners-Lee to call people to action to save Net Neutrality. [18]

Internet Slowdown Day was organized by Demand Progress, Engine Advocacy, Fight for the Future and Free Press. [16] Evan Greer, Campaign Director for Fight for the Future, told CBS News "If we lose net neutrality, we can expect the Internet to become more like Cable TV, where a small group of corporations get to choose which content most people see, and which content gets relegated to the 'slow lane.'" [19] Greer also reiterated that net neutrality is essential to keeping the Internet a "level playing field." [20]

Other activist organizations that participated in Internet Slowdown Day include: [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet service provider</span> Organization that provides access to the Internet

An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides myriad services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise privately owned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Net neutrality</span> Principle that Internet service providers should treat all data equally

Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent transfer rates regardless of content, website, platform, application, type of equipment, source address, destination address, or method of communication. Net neutrality was advocated for in the 1990s by the presidential administration of Bill Clinton in the United States. Clinton's signing of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, an amendment to the Communications Act of 1934, set a worldwide example for net neutrality laws and the regulation of ISPs.

Bandwidth throttling consists in the limitation of the communication speed, of the ingoing (received) or outgoing (sent) data in a network node or in a network device such as computers and mobile phones.

In the United States, net neutrality—the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) should make no distinctions between different kinds of content on the Internet, and to not discriminate based on such distinctions—has been an issue of contention between end-users and ISPs since the 1990s. With net neutrality, ISPs may not intentionally block, slow down, or charge different rates for specific online content. Without net neutrality, ISPs may prioritize certain types of traffic, meter others, or potentially block specific types of content, while charging consumers different rates for that content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Press (advocacy group)</span> Media reform advocacy group in the U.S.

Free Press is a United States advocacy group that is part of the media reform or media democracy movement. Their mission includes, "saving Net Neutrality, achieving affordable internet access for all, uplifting the voices of people of color in the media, challenging old and new media gatekeepers to serve the public interest, ending unwarranted surveillance, defending press freedom and reimagining local journalism." The group is a major supporter of net neutrality.

Tiered service structures allow users to select from a small set of tiers at progressively increasing price points to receive the product or products best suited to their needs. Such systems are frequently seen in the telecommunications field, specifically when it comes to wireless service, digital and cable television options, and broadband internet access.

Internet bottlenecks are places in telecommunication networks in which internet service providers (ISPs), or naturally occurring high use of the network, slow or alter the network speed of the users and/or content producers using that network. A bottleneck is a more general term for a system that has been reduced or slowed due to limited resources or components. The bottleneck occurs in a network when there are too many users attempting to access a specific resource. Internet bottlenecks provide artificial and natural network choke points to inhibit certain sets of users from overloading the entire network by consuming too much bandwidth. Theoretically, this will lead users and content producers through alternative paths to accomplish their goals while limiting the network load at any one time. Alternatively, internet bottlenecks have been seen as a way for ISPs to take advantage of their dominant market-power increasing rates for content providers to push past bottlenecks. The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has created regulations stipulating that artificial bottlenecks are in direct opposition to a free and open Internet.

Net bias is the counter-principle to net neutrality, which indicates differentiation or discrimination of price and the quality of content or applications on the Internet by ISPs. Similar terms include data discrimination, digital redlining, and network management.

The Internet Association (IA) was an American lobbying group based in Washington, D.C., which represented companies involved in the Internet. It was founded in 2012 by Michael Beckerman and several companies, including Google, Amazon, eBay, and Facebook, and was most recently headed by president and CEO K. Dane Snowden before shutting down.

Fight for the Future is a nonprofit advocacy group in the area of digital rights founded in 2011. The group aims to promote causes related to copyright legislation, as well as online privacy and censorship through the use of the Internet.

Neocities is a commercial web hosting service for static pages. It offers 1 GB of storage space for free sites and no server-side scripting for both paid and free subscriptions. The service's expressed goal is to "revive the support of free web hosting of the now-defunct GeoCities". Neocities was launched in 2013 by Kyle Drake. As of April 2024, it hosted more than 765,600 sites. The service is powered by an open-source backend provided under the FreeBSD license.

The Internet Must Go is a 2013 independent docufiction short web film about net neutrality, directed by Gena Konstantinakos.

<i>Verizon Communications Inc. v. FCC</i> (2014)

Verizon Communications Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission, 740 F.3d 623, was a case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacating portions of the FCC Open Internet Order of 2010, which the court determined could only be applied to common carriers and not to Internet service providers. The case was initiated by Verizon, which would have been subjected to the proposed FCC rules, though they had not yet gone into effect. The case has been regarded as an important precedent on whether the FCC can regulate network neutrality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zero-rating</span> Internet access under certain conditions

Zero-rating is the practice of providing Internet access without financial cost under certain conditions, such as by permitting access to only certain websites or by subsidizing the service with advertising or by exempting certain websites from the data allowance.

Net neutrality law refers to laws and regulations which enforce the principle of net neutrality.

The Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality was an event on July 12, 2017, in which various organizations and individuals advocated for net neutrality in the United States. The event was a response to plans by Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai to end United States government policies which establish net neutrality. Over 50,000 websites, including many organizations, contributed activism after Fight for the Future, Demand Progress, and Free Press convened the event. The group called it "the largest online protest in history", a term which had previously referred to protests against Internet censorship in 2012.

"Net Neutrality" is the first segment devoted to net neutrality in the United States of the HBO news satire television series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. It aired for 13 minutes on June 1, 2014, as part of the fifth episode of Last Week Tonight's first season.

Net neutrality is the principle that governments should mandate Internet service providers to treat all data on the Internet the same, and not discriminate or charge differently by user, content, website, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or method of communication. For instance, under these principles, internet service providers are unable to intentionally block, slow down or charge money for specific websites and online content.

<i>Mozilla Corp. v. FCC</i> 2019 American court case

Mozilla Corp. v. FCC, 940 F. 3d 1 was a ruling the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 2019 related to net neutrality in the United States. The case centered on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s decision in 2017 to rollback its prior 2015 Open Internet Order, reclassifying Internet services as an information service rather than as a common carrier, deregulating principles of net neutrality that had been put in place with the 2015 order. The proposed rollback had been publicly criticized during the open period of discussion, and following the FCC's issuing of the rollback, several states and Internet companies sued the FCC. These cases were consolidated into the one led by the Mozilla Corporation.

"Net Neutrality II" is the second segment of the HBO news satire television series Last Week Tonight with John Oliver devoted to net neutrality in the United States. It aired on May 7, 2017, for 19 minutes, as part of the eleventh episode of the fourth season, and the 100th episode overall.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Osborne, Charlie (September 5, 2014). "Major tech firms join Internet Slowdown on September 10". ZDNet . Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  2. 1 2 Mendoza, Menchie (September 5, 2014). "Fight for net neutrality: Sept. 10 will be 'Internet Slowdown Day'". Tech Times. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Join the Battle for Net Neutrality". Battle for the Net. Archived from the original on September 10, 2014. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  4. ↑ Johnson, Ted (2017-07-12). "Net Neutrality 'Day of Action': What to Expect". Variety. Retrieved 2017-11-10.
  5. ↑ Shields, Todd (May 12, 2014). "FCC's Wheeler Raises Possibility of Web Price Rules in New Plan". Bloomberg News . Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  6. ↑ Reisinger, Don. "Top websites join Internet Slowdown Day in symbolic protest of 'fast lanes'". CNET. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  7. ↑ Vara, Vauhini (2014-09-11). "The Speed of Internet Slowdown Day". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 2017-11-10.
  8. ↑ "Deadline near, net neutrality comments top 3 million at U.S. FCC". Reuters. 2014-09-15. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  9. ↑ Hu, Elise (2014-12-08). "A Fascinating Look Inside Those 1.1 Million Open-Internet Comments". NPR. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  10. ↑ Nelson, Steven (2014-10-09). "It's 'Internet Slowdown' Day: Major Sites Rally Against Tiered Internet". US News & World Report. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  11. ↑ Johnson, Ted (2017-07-12). "Net Neutrality 'Day of Action': What to Expect". Variety. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  12. ↑ Ruiz, Rebecca R.; Lohr, Steve (2015-02-26). "F.C.C. Approves Net Neutrality Rules, Classifying Broadband Internet Service as a Utility". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  13. ↑ Savov, Vlad (2012-01-18). "The SOPA blackout: Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, Google, and many others protest proposed law". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  14. ↑ Williams, Lauren C. (September 10, 2014). "Websites 'Slow Down' For A Day To Protest 'Fast Lanes' Internet Access Proposal". ThinkProgress . Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  15. 1 2 Walker, Lauren (September 10, 2014). "On Internet Slowdown Day, Are Websites Conceding That Net Neutrality is Dead?". Newsweek . Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  16. 1 2 Gannes, Liz (September 6, 2014). "Etsy, Kickstarter, Reddit and Others Will 'Slow Down' Sites as Protest". Re/code . Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  17. ↑ Geller, Eric (September 10, 2014). "Here's how your favorite sites are joining Internet Slowdown Day". The Daily Dot . Retrieved September 10, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Here's how the internet's net neutrality day of action unfolded". The Verge. Retrieved 2017-11-10.
  19. ↑ "There's An 'Internet Slowdown' Today, Which Isn't As Bad As It Seems... Yet". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2023-03-19.
  20. ↑ "Internet Slowdown Day promotes net neutrality" . Retrieved 2017-11-10.
  21. ↑ Paul, Ian (September 10, 2014). "Internet Slowdown Day FAQ: How Netflix, Wordpress, and other web giants are fighting for Net Neutrality". PC World . Retrieved September 11, 2014.
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