Reddit isn’t the only site jumping on board “Go Slow” day. Other big tech firms including Etsy, Fourquare, Kickstarter and Mozilla will also be slowing down their websites.
As the Guardian explains, these companies and others will install widgets on their sites that mimic how they would run if the FCC changes its rules on net neutrality.
In short, the changes would implement a “pay-to-play” system for websites, in which paying more money would allow the site to run faster. Those that don’t pay up would find site response times throttled.
The debate arguably reached critical mass when John Oliver covered the issue on a segment of Last Week Tonight, and ended it by asking the masses to email the FCC and voice their concerns. The massive influx of traffic took down the FCC site for more than an hour.
The FCC has now received more than 1 million comments, and a recent analysis found that less than 1 percent of comments supported getting rid of net neutrality.
Evan Greer, co-founder of Fight For the Future, explained the idea of the September 10 protest date in an email to the Guardian: “Net neutrality is tough to explain to people, so we wanted to organize an action that actually shows the world what’s at stake. I think the three most hated words on the internet right now are ‘Please wait, loading … ‘”
Comments on the net neutrality case are open until Sept. 15.
