As the FCC prepares to close public comments on its net neutrality proposal, major internet companies are organizing a protest to raise awareness. Reddit, Etsy, Foursquare, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Namecheap, Vimeo, and others will observe next Wednesday — September 10th — as a day of action, during which they’ll showcase net neutrality issues on their sites and drive visitors to contact the FCC, Congress, and the White House. The protest, like many previous, smaller ones, warns of a potential “internet fast lane,” in which ISPs and online services could reach deals for better service and leave the rest of the web behind. Among other things, sites will post banners that mimic a loading wheel to dramatize what a slowed-down internet could look like.

Several banners and widgets have been posted ahead of time by Battle for the Net, a project backed by Fight for the Future, Demand Progress (founded by the late internet activist Aaron Swartz), and other nonprofit organizations. While there’s not much information on the banners themselves, Battle for the Net backs one of the most popular options for preserving net neutrality: reclassifying broadband under the Title II common carrier laws that regulate phone service. The original Open Internet rules, set in place under the watch of former FCC chair Julius Genachowski, were struck down earlier this year after a judge ruled that the core principles, like stopping ISPs from blocking or degrading the quality of services, treated companies like Verizon too much like common carriers.

Read the Full Article: Source – The Verge
http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/4/6104505/reddit-kickstarter-and-others-plan-net-neutrality-day-of-action

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