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This article was published on July 12, 2017

This is how the biggest tech companies are fighting to defend net neutrality


This is how the biggest tech companies are fighting to defend net neutrality

The internet really wants you to know about net neutrality today.

Several of the world’s most popular websites have come out in support of net neutrality on the Day of Action. If you’re not sure what the protest is all about, here’s a primer from the Internet Association:

If you visit several of your favorite sites today, you might notice they’ll give you a call to action and a link to more information about the topic. Some sites aren’t putting the information front and center, but they are making sure everyone has the option of viewing it. See, for example, Amazon:

Credit: Amazon

That tile is a little hard to find, but it’s featured on the front page of Amazon to the right of all the deals. Several other sites (Netflix, Spotify) had similar tiles or pinned links available to view on their front pages, linking to the Internet Association’s page on net neutrality.

Some, like Airbnb, linked to in-site forms for its users to contact Congress directly:

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Credit: Airbnb

Most of the protest alerts center around a common theme: if net neutrality goes, you could be cut off from your favorite parts of the internet as “tiered internet” or “internet plans” are introduced.

Building on that, internet speeds could slow for sites not getting preferential treatment from the ISPs, as Foursquare points out:

Twitch pointed out something similar:

Reddit’s front page had a more subtle take on it:

And several companies reiterated their support in blog posts, like Google, Twitter, and Reddit.

Finally, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, made a video explaining why net neutrality is so important, and why he’s supporting it.

Want to know what more you can do to support net neutrality yourself? Here, let us help you out.

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