Internet Slowdown Day

Internet Slowdown Day, part of the "Battle for the Net" initiative, was a series of coordinated protests to promote net neutrality and regulations for the equal treatment of Internet traffic, occurring on September 10, 2014. The official site explains:

On September 10th, sites across the web will display an alert with a symbolic 'loading' symbol (the proverbial 'spinning wheel of death') and promote a call to action for users to push comments to the FCC, Congress, and the White House.

The FCC is soliciting public comments at [email protected]. The September 10 date is five days before the end of the FCC's public comment period. Over one million comments have been sent to the FCC before Internet Slowdown Day, and the majority indicate strong public support for the idea of net neutrality.

While many internet service providers endorse eliminating net neutrality, seeing this as an opportunity to increase their profits, critics worry that eliminating net neutrality is paramount to allowing service providers to differentiate Internet traffic into a "fast lane" (for those companies who can afford to pay to have their content delivered at premium speeds) and a "slow lane" (for everyone else's websites).

The Internet Slowdown Day protests have been compared to the January 18, 2012, Protests against SOPA and PIPA, known as the "Internet Blackout Day", which succeeded in stopping that particular American legislation. According to the protesters, the proposed legislation endangered the future of the Internet.