Google, WSJ Lock Horns Over Net Neutrality
Net neutrality is a principle that says all content that is being pushed out over cables should be treated the same. That means that if a company were to approach an ISP with an offer to split the costs of its hardware for, say, ordering their traffic first in the pipeline, that would constitute a violation of net neutrality principles.
The article that appeared today in the Wall Street Journal claimed that Google had approached major phone and cable companies "with a proposal to create a fast lane for its own content."
Google fired back shortly after the publication of the article on its Official Public Policy Blog. Richard Witt, Washington telecom and media counsel for Google, went to bat for the search engine company, calling the report in the Journal "confused." Instead, Witt argues that the company is relying on edge caching.
The issue between Google and the Wall Street Journal seems to center around "documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal."
"Some critics have questioned whether improving Web performance through edge caching -- temporary storage of frequently accessed data on servers that are located close to end users -- violates the concept of network neutrality," wrote Witt. "As I said last summer, this myth -- which unfortunately underlies a confused story in Monday's Wall Street Journal -- is based on a misunderstanding of the way in which the open Internet works."
By using edge caching, a technique that is used by ISP and content providers across the spectrum, ISPs and Web sites are simply trying to keep content closer to users and reduce load times.
"Edge caching is a common practice used by ISPs and application and content providers in order to improve the end-user experience," Witt wrote.
The net neutrality debate has two distinct camps. Content providers, like Google, believe that information should be delivered to customers without being prioritized by destination or source and at a uniform speed. Meanwhile, companies like AT&T -- who provide the cables data packets are transferred over -- want to be able to charge content companies a fee for delivering content faster.
In the past, Google has come out as a strong supporter for net neutrality, which is why the allegations by the Wall Street Journal are surprising. It's also probably why Google characterized the article as "confused" so quickly. The claim that Google is working with an ISP to create a "fast lane" for its content would violate its own stance on net neutrality.
But in this case it seems that Google isn't working on any shady business dealings with telecom companies and that edge caching is a legitimate strategy for the company to pursue.
"The practices described in the article, known as 'caching,' are commonplace and have been for many years," Gigi Sohn, president of the advocacy group Public Knowledge told Reuters.
Josh Silver, executive director of advocacy group Free Press, also questioned the Journal's report while speaking with Reuters, saying he was "skeptical that Google is truly engaged in a nefarious plot to undermine the open Internet -- the company denies it, and we look forward to all of the facts coming to light."