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In a not-so-distant future, American internet service providers like Comcast, Time Warner Cable, AT&T and Verizon could – if the Federal Communications Commissions allows – pick and choose what you can see on the internet and how fast you can see it. In fact, Netflix is already paying tolls to Verizon and Comcast to keep them from deliberately slowing down your movie streams, and Tom Wheeler, the former cable and wireless industry lobbyist turned FCC chair, has said he thinks that’s only right and proper.
You can count on much more ISP interference with your choices and mine unless we have net neutrality. And to reinforce that point, several large websites and a host of smaller ones are attempting to “cover the web” on Wednesday with icons showing a “Loading ...” message as part of a symbolic “Internet Slowdown”.
They hope it’ll encourage you to call and email Congress in favor of net neutrality, before the FCC formally decides later this year whether to endorse a “fast-lane, slow-lane” system controlled by the giant telecommunications companies that provide most Americans’ internet access, or classify those providers as public utilities without the power to limit our access.
But perhaps it’ll take more than entreaties to Capitol Hill to encourage the FCC to rule in favor of open internet access by reclassifying the ISPs as public utilities. Perhaps what it’ll take is to give them a taste of the slowed-down medicine they want the rest of us to swallow.
Kyle Drake, founder of the small hosting company NeoCities, wrote some software code that limited FCC access to NeoCities (though not to the sites they host) from IP addresses associated with the FCC. Then, as the Verge reported, uploaded the code for others to use.
Picture Wheeler swearing under his breath as his browser slows to a crawl when he tries to read a story about the FCC on Business Insider. Or, imagine some of the commission engineering staff getting throttled when they visit GitHub, where lots of open-source software gets shared.
Now, one small website’s slow-down probably won’t wreak any havoc at the FCC. But, as a friend who wished to remain anonymous noted, if enough websites got together and used code like Drake’s – especially the online businesses that stand to lose customers in the absence of net neutrality – then everyone who works (or goofs off online at work) at the FCC would have a really annoying day ... or week.
Of course, website owners wouldn’t have to stop at IP addresses associated with the FCC. They could implement a one-day slowdown for every Comcast customer in Philadelphia, the company’s home town, just to show them the kind of internet the company wants the government to allow. Or they could do the same in San Antonio and New York, where AT&T and Verizon make their respective headquarters – just to show their customers what could happen if the companies are successful in their efforts to have the FCC declare that a 4-megabit connection qualifies as “broadband”.
It’s unlikely that Google or Amazon would take part in any direct way – but it wouldn’t have to prevent its customers’ cloud-hosted sites from joining in and deploying the code to slow the FCC’s building’s access to huge swaths of the internet.
Of course, maybe none of this will be necessary: Wheeler may have tipped his hand on the question of internet access as a public utility a few days ago when he noted that “three-quarters of American homes have no competitive choice for the essential infrastructure for 21st century economics and democracy”. If he means to act on that, great: net neutrality is all about choice, and there don’t seem to be a lot of ways to make those statements compatible with a fast lane/slow lane model.
But if that isn’t an indication of his intentions, small and large businesses are at risk – even if many don’t yet understand how the telecom giants would, over time, erect toll booths as only the owner of an essential highway can do. A little guerilla action on net neutrality – and soon – might prevent the carriers from capturing the net.
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