Net neutrality is a principle about fairness on the Internet. It holds that no ISP should be able to unfairly manipulate your Internet usage or your experience of the Web, particularly in ways that harm other businesses. It means that ISPs don’t get to choose which data is sent more quickly, and which sites get blocked or throttled and who has to pay extra.
About 200 internet companies and activist groups are coming together today to mobilize their users into opposing US government plans to scrap net neutrality protection.
Facebook, Google, Netflix and dozens of other websites will likely greet their website visitors by a special message about the future of the Internet, as part of a broad campaign by the companies to stop what they say is a threat to the Web as most consumers know it.
In dispute are a set of federal regulations saying that Internet providers should not slow down, block or charge websites extra fees while treating other sites differently. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is currently weighing how to repeal those so-called “net neutrality” rules, in a move that’s expected to benefit Internet providers such as Verizon and AT&T.
The internet-wide day of action, scheduled for Wednesday 12 July, will see companies including Facebook, Google, Amazon, Vimeo, Spotify & Reddit notify their users that net neutrality – a founding principle of the open internet – is under attack.
According to Guardian, the activists argue that repealing the FCC’s net neutrality rules would give Internet service providers (ISPs) too much power to determine what consumers can and can’t see online, and for what price. To that end, they’ve partnered not only with the world’s top online applications to oppose the FCC’s proposed actions.