Internet Slowdown Day

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 coordinated protests to promote net neutrality and regulations for the equal treatment of Internet traffic, 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]

The FCC is soliciting public comments at openinternet@fcc.gov.[4] The September 10 date is five days before the end of the FCC's public comment period.[5] Over one million comments have been sent to the FCC before Internet Slowdown Day, and the majority indicate strong public support for the idea of net neutrality.[1]

While many internet service providers endorse eliminating net neutrality, seeing this as an opportunity to increase their profits, critics worry that eliminating net neutrality is paramount to allowing service providers to differentiate 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][6]

The Internet Slowdown Day protests have been compared to the January 18, 2012, Protests against SOPA and PIPA, known as the "Internet Blackout Day", which succeeded in stopping that particular American legislation. According to the protesters, the proposed legislation endangered the future of the Internet.[2][7][8]

Participants

Announced participants included Automattic, Dwolla, Etsy, Foursquare, Grooveshark, I Can Has Cheezburger?, Kickstarter, Meetup, Mozilla, Namecheap, Netflix, Reddit, Tumblr, Upworthy, Urban Dictionary, Wikia, and Vimeo.[9][1][10] At least 76 different websites took part in the protest.[8]

Internet Slowdown Day was organized by Demand Progress, Engine Advocacy, Fight for the Future and Free Press.[9] Other activist organizations that supported the protest action include:[11]

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. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  4. ↑ Collier, Kevin (September 4, 2014). "Your favorite websites are joining Internet Slowdown Day". The Daily Dot. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  5. ↑ Geller, Eric (September 1, 2014). "Net neutrality activists are about to show you what an Internet 'slow lane' looks like". The Daily Dot. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  6. ↑ Shields, Todd (May 12, 2014). "FCC's Wheeler Raises Possibility of Web Price Rules in New Plan". Bloomberg News. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  7. ↑ Williams, Lauren C. (September 10, 2014). "Websites 'Slow Down' For A Day To Protest 'Fast Lanes' Internet Access Proposal". ThinkProgress. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  8. 1 2 Walker, Lauren (September 10, 2014). "On Internet Slowdown Day, Are Websites Conceding That Net Neutrality is Dead?". Newsweek. Retrieved September 11, 2014.
  9. 1 2 Gannes, Liz (September 6, 2014). "Etsy, Kickstarter, Reddit and Others Will 'Slow Down' Sites as Protest". Re/code. Retrieved September 6, 2014.
  10. ↑ Geller, Eric (September 10, 2014). "Here's how your favorite sites are joining Internet Slowdown Day". The Daily Dot. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
  11. ↑ 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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