Yesterday’s Net Neutrality day marked unprecedented public participation in the formerly fatally dull realm of telcoms policy, as 1.6 million Americans sent the FCC comments supporting Net Neutrality.
Today, the Internet went all out in support of net neutrality. Hundreds of popular websites featured pop-ups suggesting that those sites had been blocked or throttled by Internet service providers. Some sites got hilariously creative—Twitch replaced all of its emojis with that annoying loading icon. Netflix shared GIFs that would never finish loading. PornHub simply noted that “slow porn sucks.”
Together, we painted an alarming picture of what the Internet might look like if the FCC goes forward with its plan to roll back net neutrality protections: ISPs prioritizing their favored content sources and deprioritizing everything else. (Fight for the Future has put together a great collection of examples of how sites participated in the day of action.)
Today has been about Internet users across the country who are afraid of large ISPs getting too much say in how we use the Internet. Voices ranged from huge corporations to ordinary Internet users like you and me.
Historic Day of Action: Net Neutrality Allies Send 1.6 Million Comments to FCC
[Elliot Harman/EFF]