You may have heard about Net Neutrality in the news recently. Here’s why we at Shapeways support it. The core principle of net neutrality is that all traffic (data) traveling across the internet should be treated the same at each stage of the process. The FCC intends to propose rules that would allow Internet service providers to charge websites to access a “fast lane” and slow down every site that doesn’t pay. Any plan that allows for “pay-to-play” access is bad for startups, bad for growing businesses, and will hurt our economy.
Even though for example, Netflix, may want to pay for faster access to deliver your video, when a new video streaming startup comes along, they could be forced into a slow lane if they couldn’t pay and their videos would be patchy. Essentially, the startup is doomed before it even gets going. This is so anti-innovation that Netflix is actually against it. As are we.
Image Source: CFC Oklahoma
What can I do?
May 15th is a Day of Action. You can show your support for Net Neutrality in these ways:“>
No one should have to pay to play on the Internet. We support #NetNeutrality and we urge the @FCC to support the Open Internet
2. Put a Stop the Slow Lane link on your website
3. Send a message to the FCC Commissioners or congressional offices and let them know you believe in real and meaningful net neutrality.
Check out this great Mashable video, the reddit campaign or Fred Wilson’s insightful blog and help keep the internet the open and innovative playground it should be, and #StopTheSlowLane
Thanks so much for sharing this, Shapeways. It’s incredibly important that as many people as possible realize that a) the internet is actively under attack by corporations right now, and b) how vicious and underhanded some of those attacks can get. Big telecommunications companies won’t rest until they’ve strangled the innovation of the web to death, and so we can’t rest until we’ve beaten them back.