Advertisement
U.S. markets close in 4 hours 53 minutes
  • S&P 500

    5,252.71
    +4.22 (+0.08%)
     
  • Dow 30

    39,744.72
    -15.36 (-0.04%)
     
  • Nasdaq

    16,397.77
    -1.76 (-0.01%)
     
  • Russell 2000

    2,128.22
    +13.88 (+0.66%)
     
  • Crude Oil

    82.60
    +1.25 (+1.54%)
     
  • Gold

    2,234.50
    +21.80 (+0.99%)
     
  • Silver

    24.93
    +0.18 (+0.74%)
     
  • EUR/USD

    1.0800
    -0.0029 (-0.27%)
     
  • 10-Yr Bond

    4.1980
    +0.0020 (+0.05%)
     
  • GBP/USD

    1.2631
    -0.0007 (-0.06%)
     
  • USD/JPY

    151.2750
    +0.0290 (+0.02%)
     
  • Bitcoin USD

    71,420.88
    +1,602.70 (+2.30%)
     
  • CMC Crypto 200

    885.54
    0.00 (0.00%)
     
  • FTSE 100

    7,972.78
    +40.80 (+0.51%)
     
  • Nikkei 225

    40,168.07
    -594.66 (-1.46%)
     

Reddit, Etsy, and Kickstarter Among Popular Web Sites Launching a Protest in Support of Net Neutrality

Reddit, Etsy, and Kickstarter Among Popular Web Sites Launching a Protest in Support of Net Neutrality

Some leading web sites including posted protests on Tuesday opposing the rollback of net neutrality rules.

The Federal Communications Commission is scheduled to vote on Thursday to repeal the 2015 rules, which forbid Internet service providers from blocking, slowing, or discriminating against online sites and services. But the move led by Trump-appointed FCC chairman Ajit Pai has drawn widespread protest from Internet companies and consumer and civil rights groups.

Leading ISPs like AT&T t , Verizon vz , and Comcast cmcsa have said they have no plans to block or slow legal content, with or without the rules. But even large Internet companies such as Netflix nflx and Amazon amzn have said they fear possible discrimination without the protections.

Tuesday’s protests were aimed at demonstrated one of the claimed harms from repealing the rules: That ISPs could charge customers more to reach certain web sites.

At the popular web site Reddit, visitors were greeted with a solid red banner that said: “We’re sorry, but you’ve exceeded your allotted bandwidth for HTTPS://WWW.REDDIT.COM. Please update your internet plan to continue browsing.” Etsy etsy and Kickstarter offered pro-net neutrality posts with links to contact Congress. Other sites taking part in the protest included Imgur, Mozilla, Pinterest, and Mozilla.

Get Data Sheet, Fortune’s technology newsletter.

Congress has been split on the issue and leading Republicans in the House and Senate have shown little interest in getting involved. Still, 28 mostly Democratic senators asked Pai in a letter last week to delay the vote. And group of more than 20 technical experts, including World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, sent a letter to Congress on Monday asking that the FCC repeal vote be set aside due to “a flawed and factually inaccurate understanding of Internet technology.”

Pai has said he intends to go forward with the vote. Last week, the chairman, a former associate general counsel for net neutrality opponent Verizon, showed a humorous video joking that he was a “puppet” for the telecom giant. Pai has also argued that Twitter twtr and other social media sites are a greater threat to free expression on the Internet than ISPs.

Under Pai’s proposal, Internet providers would be allowed to slow or block content—and charge more or prioritize some sites for faster connections—as long as the policies were publicly disclosed. The Federal Trade Commission could investigate if the disclosures were accurate and police the policies for antitrust violations under the plan.

Advertisement