If you're a big fan of watching porn online, you may have some trouble on the 12th of July. Because one of the biggest porn providers on the internet, Pornhub, has announced that they will be joining a virtual protest set to take place five days before the first comment deadline for the Federal Communications Commission’s proposal. I know, that's a mouthful. But basically, the proposal consists of massive changes to the 2015 Open Internet Order and would allow internet service providers, to put it frankly, to f*ck with us. They would have the power to do things like slow down streaming and charge more for certain sites. You can see why people of the internet are angry. And it's not just Pornhub — they're joining a huge list of major sites including Amazon, Github, Kickstarter, Reddit, and others.
The protest, known as the “Internet-Wide Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality” is organized by Fight for the Future, freepress and Demand Progress. It defends the principles put forth in the 2015 order — namely that everyone should have equal access to the internet. By removing the classification of broadband as a telecommunications service, a lot of the principles of that important order would be undermined.
“Without it, the cable and wireless companies that control internet access will have unfair power to pick winners and losers in the market,” Corey Price, Pornhub Vice President, told Motherboard. “No one in the porn industry ever yells ‘slower, slower, slower.' We’re much more accustomed to ‘faster, faster, faster.’ Here at Pornhub, we want to keep it that way.” (I'm so glad he managed to work that in there — how long do you think he's been waiting to use that? It was worth the wait, Mr. Price.)
But it's a really serious business. Think of all the havoc that would be wreaked if these companies could manipulate internet access. And that's why big names of the Internet are up in arms, like Pornhub, Amazon, and Reddit — these are some of the most visited sites in the whole country. Hopefully their voices will be heard.
Pornhub hasn't announced exactly what it will do to join in, but they are reportedly considering a loading icon to give a sense of how much slower some sites will be. No matter what they do though, it's going to be annoying — people love their porn and they don't like to wait for it. But maybe it will get their point across.
