Netflix, Reddit join 'internet slowdown' net neutrality protest

Storified by CBC News Community· Tue, Sep 09 2014 23:10:19

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You're about to find out.

On Sept. 10, dozens of the world's most popular websites will be joining a global protest against the U.S. government's support for what net neutrality activists call "internet fast lanes."

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Sites participating in the " internet slowdown protest " will display an infinitely-spinning "site loading" icon, or as the advocacy group organizing the even calls it , the "spinning wheel of death."

-- an organization "dedicated to protecting and expanding the Internet's transformative power in our lives by creating civic campaigns that are engaging for millions of people," more than 35 advocacy organizations and hundreds of thousands of activists will be participating in the protest. According to Fight For the Future -- an organization "dedicated to protecting and expanding the Internet's transformative power in our lives by creating civic campaigns that are engaging for millions of people," more than 35 advocacy organizations and hundreds of thousands of activists will be participating in the protest.

Netflix, Etsy, Reddit, Mozilla, Kickstarter, Imgur, Foursquare, Wordpress Urban Dictionary and Uproxx are but a few of the major internet companies involved, alongside the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Greenpeace.

The protest comes just 5 days before the FCC's next comment deadline on September 15th.

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Battleforthenet encourages those who are interested in participating to change their Twitter avatar to a spinning wheel of death, or to share images promoting the protest on Facebook and other social networks. "Cable companies want to slow down (and break!) your favorite sites, for profit," reads battleforthenet.com, the protest's main digital headquarters. "To fight back, let's cover the web with symbolic 'loading' icons, to remind everyone what an Internet without net neutrality would look like, and drive record numbers of emails and calls to lawmakers. Are you in?"

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Those with websites of their own can download a code or activate a Wordpress widget to share the spinning wheel of death with their audiences, and mobile app owners can send push notification to their users with information about the protest and a link to battleforthenet.com.

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"This is the time to go big, visible, and strong - that's the only way we can actually win this fight," reads battleforthenet.com. "We realize it's a big ask, but this is the kind of bad internet legislation that comes along (or gets this close to passing) once a decade or so. If it passes we'll be kicking ourselves for decades--every time a favorite site gets relegated to the slow lane, and every time we have to rework or abandon a project because of the uncertain costs paid prioritization creates. Doing the most we can right now seems like the only rational step."

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In May, more than 100 leading technology companies including Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon wrote to the FCC to oppose its new net neutrality plan, saying that it "represents a grave threat to the Internet."

In July, The Internet Association, which represents three dozen web companies such as Google Inc, Netflix Inc and Amazon.com Inc, made its case in a filing with the U.S. telecom regulators.

"The internet is threatened by broadband internet access providers who would turn the open, best-efforts internet into a pay-for-priority platform more closely resembling cable television than today's internet," the group wrote, arguing that allowing technical "reasonable network management" should give ISPs enough flexibility to deal with congested networks, while paid prioritization on non-congested networks is likely to mean faster download speeds for some at the expense of others. This is not the first time corporations and citizens have banded together against the possibility of a two-tiered internet.

Net neutrality demands to FCC made by Internet AssociationMajor U.S. web companies on Monday urged regulators to restrict the ability of internet providers including mobile carriers to strike deals for faster delivery of some web traffic and planned a publicity campaign about the government's proposal.

Will you be participating in the internet slowdown? Let us know your plans (and thoughts) below.