Why your favourite websites are protesting over the net’s future

said braka 5:30 AM
The internet is gearing up for one of its largest ever

protests. Today, people visiting some of the world’s most popular websites, including Amazon, Netflix and Twitter, could see pop-up messages saying that the site has been blocked or deliberately slowed down. The pop-ups are fictional, but they paint a disturbing picture of a possible online future.
The protest is over net neutrality, the principle that internet service providers should not be allowed to prioritise some types of web traffic over others. ISPs should not be able to accept a payment from Amazon, for example, to make sure that its website loads faster than competing sites. On the highways of internet traffic, everyone should drive at the same speed, the proponents of net neutrality argue.
But now the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – the government agency that regulates US ISPs – wants to overturn rules dating from Barack Obama’s presidency that uphold the principle of net neutrality. In May, the FCC voted in favour of repealing an earlier ruling that defined broadband as a public utility, one that obliged ISPs to make their services available to the public at a reasonable price.
The move has widely been interpreted as a direct attack on net neutrality. The internet, normally a place of endless squabbling, has been near-unanimous in its response. Over six million people have submitted comments on the FCC’s “Restoring Internet Freedom” proposal, which would prohibit the agency from introducing net neutrality rules similar to the Obama-era ones.

Online mobilisation

“The momentum is palpable this time around,” says Evan Greer, campaign director at Fight for the Future, one of the charities coordinating the protest. “It’s gearing up to be one of the largest online mobilisations in history.”
The list of organisations joining the so-called Battle for the Net represents a huge swathe of the online world. Google, Airbnb and Spotify will join dozens of smaller websites and thousands of online activists in a day of protest timed to drive millions more to express their views to the FCC before the 17 July deadline for comments. The protest follows similar efforts in 2012 against the proposed Stop Online Piracy and Protect IP Acts, which were halted successfully.