Internet Slowdown Day: 10 Popular Web Sites Speaking Out For Net Neutrality

Join The Fight

If you've spent much time online today, you've probably witnessed Internet Slowdown Day, an awareness campaign that aims to get individuals to speak out to lawmakers and the Federal Communications Commission in support of Net Neutrality before the FCC's Sept. 15 deadline for public comments. No Internet connections were harmed in the making of this protest: Nothing actually slowed down; websites participated by displaying symbolic "loading" icons on their homepages with information about the Net Neutrality effort. Here's a look at some of the sites fighting against proposed rule changes by the FCC that would enable cable companies and other ISPs to charge companies to have their content delivered at higher speeds.

Vimeo

Video site Vimeo showed a bitmap-y video on its homepage with a form people can fill out to get connected to a U.S. Senator to voice their opinions on Net Neutrality.

Netflix

Streaming video site Netflix voiced one of the more popular arguments against Net Neutrality: that it will create Internet "slow lanes" and "fast lanes" for the delivery of Internet content. "If there were Internet slow lanes, you'd still be waiting. Protect Internet Freedom. Defend Net Neutrality," the company displayed with a spinning red "loading" icon on its home page.

Etsy

E-commerce site Etsy implored its users to "protect the Etsy community from Internet slow lanes," arguing that the FCC's proposed rule changes will harm small, independent businesses.

Mozilla

Mozilla.org, custodians of the Firefox browser and other open-source productivity tools, asked users to "tell U.S. Congress to protect a level playing field" and urged them to write to legislators.

Kickstarter

Crowdfunding site Kickstarter changed its Twitter avatar and devoted its homepage to the fight for Net Neutrality. The company wrote on its site, "Cable companies want to set up toll booths on the Internet. This would destroy Net Neutrality and ruin the open Internet that we know and love."

Upworthy

"If this site was still loading, would you still be here?" asked viral video site Upworthy. "Big ISPs want the power to slow (and break!) sites like ours. Tell lawmakers: 'Protect Internet freedom. Defend net neutrality.'"

AVG

Security vendor AVG posed a simple statement of support for "real net neutrality" at the bottom of its home page and provided a link to BattleForTheNet.com, the online home of Internet Slowdown Day's organizers.

Reddit

Content sharing and aggregation site Reddit incorporated the spinning "loading" icon into its logo and warned users "if there were Internet slow lanes, you'd still be waiting."

WordPress

Blog platform WordPress featured a blog post (what else?) about its support for Net Neutrality with a long-spinning "loading" icon stating "this is what will happen without real net neutrality. Make it stop!"

Urban Dictionary

Crowdsourced slang dictionary Urban Dictionary offered a definition of Net Neutrality as it's word of the day, along with a jibe at late Sen. Ted Stevens and his infamous "Internet of tubes" reference from his 2006 argument against net neutrality.