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Wikipedia Government The Internet United States Your Rights Online

Wikipedia's "Complicated" Relationship With Net Neutrality 134

HughPickens.com writes Brian Fung writes in the Washington Post that Wikipedia has been a little hesitant to weigh in on net neutrality, the idea that all Web traffic should be treated equally by Internet service providers such as Comcast or Time Warner Cable. That's because the folks behind Wikipedia actually see a non-neutral Internet as one way to spread information cheaply to users in developing countries. With Wikipedia Zero, users in places like Pakistan and Malaysia can browse the site without it counting against the data caps on their cellphones or tablets. This preferential treatment for Wikipedia's site helps those who can't afford to pay for pricey data — but it sets the precedent for deals that cut against the net neutrality principle. "We believe in net neutrality in America," says Gayle Karen Young, adding that Wikipedia Zero requires a different perspective elsewhere. "Partnering with telecom companies in the near term, it blurs the net neutrality line in those areas. It fulfills our overall mission, though, which is providing free knowledge."

Facebook and Google also operate programs internationally that are exempted from users' data caps — a tactic known somewhat cryptically as "zero rating". Facebook in particular has made "Facebook Zero" not just a sales pitch in developing markets but also part of an Internet.org initiative to expand access "to the two thirds of the world's population that doesn't have it." But a surprising decision in Chile shows what happens when policies of neutrality are applied without nuance. Chile recently put an end to the practice, widespread in developing countries, of big companies "zero-rating" access to their services. "That might seem perverse," says Glyn Moody, "since it means that Chilean mobile users must now pay to access those services, but it is nonetheless exactly what governments that have mandated net neutrality need to do."
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Wikipedia's "Complicated" Relationship With Net Neutrality

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  • by justthinkit ( 954982 ) <floyd@just-think-it.com> on Thursday November 27, 2014 @08:41AM (#48473539) Homepage Journal
    Is "data against cap" the same as net neutrality? I don't see the relationship.
    • by QuasiSteve ( 2042606 ) on Thursday November 27, 2014 @08:54AM (#48473593)

      Imagine if your ISP had a cap (hard cap, soft cap, whatever), and Amazon paid your ISP so that all their Amazon Prime streaming offerings would not count toward that cap - but Netflix won't or can't pay to do the same.

      Would you stick with Netflix knowing that you can only watch N shows before hitting your cap, or would you switch to Amazon and watch as many shows as you like?
      ( For sake of argument, assume they offer the same content. )

      • Imagine you have a truck that gets 20 mpg, but gas is now touching $4/gallon. Would you stay with a truck, or switch to a Peel P50 [youtube.com]? Answer: it is a personal decision that has nothing to do with highways trying to apply selective tolls that discriminate against station wagons full of mag tape.

        We control cap. ISPs control non-net neutrality.
        • Answer: it is a personal decision that has nothing to do with highways trying to apply selective tolls that discriminate against station wagons full of mag tape.

          What if some toll road operator first builds Hicksville's highway connection using public subsidies and right-of-way, then opens a general store there, and finally starts selectively enforcing huge tolls and lower speed limits against any trucks carrying goods for the competing stores (but not their own)?

      • The difference is Amazon is offering this to me, the end user.

        Comcast isn't extorting it from them by slowing them down unless Amazon kicks back a portion of my money to Comcast (which, by the way, is fraud as my contract with Comcast offers me certain speed rates.)

        • and promotes more total and more entrenched network-effect monopolies.

          If you came up with a way better peer to peer movie sharing site that had better quality and paid the actors and director directly through a tip jar which also funded their next productions (just throw the business process patent my way now, I won't even bother applying :-), you woudn't have a fair chance to compete, because the Flixazon competitor's product would be free for the users and you couldn't get into the market.

          And because thei

      • by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        If Amazon paid me directly for my connection I'd use them too. In fact, in the US Netflix did pay the postage on DVDs they mailed out. Was that unfair to competitors who didn't pay postage?

        The insidious problem is that ISPs want to get paid twice - once by me and once by content providers who have deep enough pockets. That's like the post office charging Netflix to send me a DVD and then charging me again before they'd give it to me.

        • The thing that will really chap your hide then is that the post office offered to send items faster if the content providers payed more money. They'd even send DVDs next day if a competitor was willing to pay for it. This kind of outrage is why the post office is only out for them selves and screwing over the customers.

      • by mysidia ( 191772 )

        OK... Now imagine your ISP had the cap and Amazon did not pay your ISP anything extra, and your ISP is not a related entity to Amazon, so they have no financial incentive to favor Amazon, and your ISP decided to waive the cap for Amazon prime educational videos.

        That's more like the Wikipedia situation.

        Maybe the description "Network Neutrality" is not even the goal we should want it's really Non-interference; as in, no use of network traffic management to promote a commercial service sold by yourself o

      • This is the difference between the USA and the rest of the world - the general assumption is that there is any money changing hands at all, as opposed to the ISP merely obtaining a direct link to the other network or installing a caching server in the NOC so as to maximize the user experience even if for no other reason than bragging rights.

        Did So-Net in Japan *have* to 1-up all the gigabit offerings popping up around the world by being the first to offer a 2gbit/s service? Hell no, but it's bloody awesome

    • by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) on Thursday November 27, 2014 @10:09AM (#48473849) Journal

      Or, imagine that the websites espousing certain political views do not count against your cap, but those with opposing political views do.

      Which messages are more likely to be heard?

      Net Neutrality is about whether or not we are going to trust corporate gatekeepers with no requirement of fairness to set the narrative about our society.

      And how will this affect how companies that provide hosting services work, if some of them get caps and others don't? What will happen to the cost of hosting (which is basically the cost of speech on the internet)?

    • by jythie ( 914043 )
      One of the big problems in the discussion of net neutrality is there are many ways to implement it and individuals usually have one way or another in mind.

      For instance, I am a proponent of classifying the physical layers at common carriers while ISPs would not be, so consumers would be locked into their local carrier but then could chose any ISP endpoint they wished. Under this setup data caps would be fine since you could always switch to another ISP. Other solutions however keep the two bundled so data
    • Is "data against cap" the same as net neutrality? I don't see the relationship.

      I live in one of the two countries where a pilot program [itnewsafrica.com] from Internet.org was tested, namely, that traffic to and from Facebook (later also extended to WhatsApp) doesn't add to your data cap. The way it works is that the mobile operator inspects the traffic (nothing too deep, just checks whether the connected endpoint IPs belong to a whitelist) and if the traffic comes from FB or WhatsApp, it's "free" (as it does not use your quota). This is of course discrimination by origin, and it goes against net neutr

      • by Cigarra ( 652458 )

        ...I myself was always FOR net neutrality, but I'm aware this kind of initiatives (which by the way is mandated by the ISP regulation in my country) would suffer if N.N. is fully enforced.

        It should read:
        "...I'm aware this kind of initiatives would suffer if N.N. (which by the way is mandated by the ISP regulation in my country) is fully enforced..."

      • We have had these special Whatsapp+Facebook plans in India for years. Nobody uses them. People need a lot more stuff on their phones than these. Also, data use by whatsapp and fb zero is basically negligible. So its not like net neutrality is being heavily subverted or anything. I think its OK. FB zero doesn't even load images.

    • by crioca ( 1394491 )
      Yes it is, imagine if you had a single tank of petrol each month, and there were some stores you could drive to but it wouldn't use up any of your petrol. Even if most months you didn't use all your petrol up, you'd still prefer to visit those stores because you might need that petrol later if something comes up.
  • As long as you do it in a non-discriminatory manner (all non-profits (schools, libraries,etc) )

    • Exactly. But they don't.

      The problem is that what FB, Google are currently presenting as "aid" or "development" for underprivileged regions is 1) restricted to their own services and 2) likely to be shut down in the near future on their whim.

      If they are serious about development, that's great, but it seems to me there are far less self-interested avenues for them to do so.

      Meanwhile these zero-rate programs are just another attempt at re-defining The Internet to be what they have on offer, and probably end up

    • by jbolden ( 176878 ) on Thursday November 27, 2014 @09:04AM (#48473613) Homepage

      No it is not fine with net-neutrality. Setting up one class of users (non-profits) as opposed to other sets of users is violating the core idea of it. Sorry you cant have it both ways. Either all packets are equal (which is frankly stupid given that people want QoS) or some packets are privileged for X reason. Then we have debates about reasons.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        Yeah, but nobody talking about net neutrality wants all packets to be equal. They want all destinations to be equal, i.e. they want traffic from Netflix to have roughly the same likelihood of reaching its destination as traffic from the cable company's VOD service.

        Subsidizing traffic doesn't violate net neutrality, because it doesn't affect the delivery of data, only the cost to the end user. Even if the Internet were regulated in precisely the same way as telephone, subsidized traffic would still be allo

        • by green1 ( 322787 )

          It's hard to say, imagine a world where your data cap is zero, overage is $100/meg, and certain sites don't count. How is that not the same problem as one where providers are being extorted for money if they want people to see their data? And why does it become any different if the data cap is now 500 meg instead of zero? or the overage is $5/meg instead of $100? Adjust the numbers any which way you want, but the whole idea that one company can pay to get access to the customer while another may not be able

        • by crioca ( 1394491 )

          Yeah, but nobody talking about net neutrality wants all packets to be equal. They want all destinations to be equal.

          If travelling to one destination does not count against your data cap, then that destination is not on equal footing.

          Subsidizing traffic doesn't violate net neutrality, because it doesn't affect the delivery of data, only the cost to the end user.

          It does violate net neutrality, because it affects the cost of delivery of data to and from the end user.

          What Wikipedia is doing here is a good thing by itself, but if the practice were to become commonplace, it's something that would be very bad.

          • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

            It does violate net neutrality, because it affects the cost of delivery of data to and from the end user.

            But it doesn't. The cost is still the same, regardless of who is paying it. What it does is shift the burden, at the request of one of the parties. That's not the same as shifting the burden at the request of someone who isn't a party to the communication (your ISP). And changing the cost of the communication isn't really any different from changing the cost of the content. If Apple (for example) ch

      • by dabadab ( 126782 )

        Either all packets are equal (which is frankly stupid given that people want QoS)

        Do they?
        I, for one, would rather have net neutrality than QoS.
        And I guess most people do not want QoS, they want enough bandwith and low enough latency in general so QoS does not even come into play.

        • I want my games and voip to be low latency, but not necessarily high bandwidth. I want my streaming content to be very high bandwidth but I don't care if it's got even a multi-second latency.

        • by jbolden ( 176878 )

          Well sure but that world of effectively infinite bandwidth with low latency is not going to happen at least not soon. Latency has for many routes been going up slightly as traffic increases. For the next decade or two QoS matters.

  • by Anonymous Coward
    It seems like in this way wikipedia is partnering with the ISP to reduce the cost for the user.
    What net neutrality is trying to prevent (as I understand it) is that Google has to pay extra for it's content to be delivered to a customer, while the customer is already paying for that data to be delivered to him.
    Essentially, here wikipedia is subsidizing the users internet connection when connecting to wikipedia.
    Whereas net neutrality is about not charging companies extra for delivering data to users who alrea
    • >Whereas net neutrality is about not charging companies extra for delivering data to users who already paid.

      But so many net neutrality bigmouths are against paid prioritization, too.

    • by danbob999 ( 2490674 ) on Thursday November 27, 2014 @09:29AM (#48473695)
      The problem is that cellular data is not free. Spectrum, towers, antenna cost money. If a provider allows Wikipedia for free, then it will raise costs for the rest of the Internet. The provider is not going to loose money just to please Wikipedia. Therefore yes, it violates net neutrality.
      • Absolutely not; prices are set based on what the market can bear, completely independent of input materials. If a vendor makes a huge investment in widgets and no one wants to buy, it ends up being a sunk cost and they'll sell it below cost (because supply and demand).

        Additionally, cost is defined as "the value of the next best alternative." Unless the network is at capacity, it costs me nothing when my neighbor uses e.g. T-Mobile's no-charge music streaming.

        What's being proposed is called toll-free broadb

        • So you would consider an Internet provider with a 1GB monthly cap but unlimited access to netflix, google and facebook to be neutral?
          • Net Neutrality is a routing rule: "Don't degrade service (technically, drop packets) based on source/destination". Bandwidth caps don't do this.

            You might not like monthly caps, but don't call it a Net Neutrality issue. That's a separate battle.

            There's many different ways Internet traffic can be billed. There may be a peering agreement in place (where peers exchange roughly equal amounts of packets, and aren't otherwise concerned about their ultimate source or destination); there may be some arrangement wher

            • A low bandwidth cap for a specific web site is effectively the same thing as dropping packets for the same web site. It might not have anything to do with real cost. ISP A could choose to cap web site B to a ridiculously low level because it is owned by ISP C which is their competitor.
              • No one has made any mention of a bandwidth cap "for a specific website", though. I said what if I paid the bandwidth costs you would otherwise incur.

                • Yeah well what if google, netflix and facebook paid the alleged "bandwidth costs you would otherwise incur" and that the rest of the Internet is capped at 1GB / month? I call that a violation of net neutrality, because they are not going to pay the same $3/GB overcharge as I do.
                  • Again, it's not Net Neutrality, because it's not causing packets to be dropped based on source or destination. You're arguing against a by-definition argument.

                    But let's look at your argument (apparently) against bandwidth caps and toll-free broadband as a separate issue.

                    So you're on a prepaid or otherwise pre-negotiated plan because your service provider wants to budget for their capacity. How else do you handle overages, other than an overage charge or ending service altogether?

                    Suppose that Facebook invent

                    • Then I don't agree with your definition. I define Net Neutrality just like wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:

                      Net neutrality (also network neutrality or Internet neutrality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication.

                      Charging differently is a violation of net neutrality.

                    • That definition makes it impossible to provide toll-free broadband, then.

                      Consider if I went to a website, and it asked my ISP "How much is this user being charged to visit us?" And the ISP said "$0.50". And so they cut me a check for $0.50.

                      What if instead of paying a million people a million small checks, what if it were easier to pay a single check to the ISP for the same amount?

                      What's the difference?

                    • Also consider that the data is being treated equally: In both cases, it's being paid for. It doesn't matter who's doing the paying, does it?

                      It's not the ISP setting the policy of how the data is getting paid for; it's one of the two end-users who is voluntarily opting in. Either I pay for it, or someone else does, in either case, the ISP and/or routers don't care.

                    • My ISP rate is $3/GB. If a big player pay less than that amount, then net neutrality is not respected. Anyway I don't think Wikipedia is paying for its traffic in Pakistan therefore you can't say that the data is being paid for.
                    • by q4Fry ( 1322209 )

                      That definition makes it impossible to provide toll-free broadband, then.

                      Congratulations. You have just hit upon the dilemma that the article was written about. It took you a while, but you got there.

                    • *whoosh*

    • by green1 ( 322787 )

      How is that different than a company paying to bypass a cap? how does that not give them an unfair advantage over the company who can't? And how does it not provide incentive for the provider to decrease caps hoping to force more companies to pay to bypass them?

  • Good (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wisnoskij ( 1206448 ) on Thursday November 27, 2014 @08:50AM (#48473573) Homepage
    And what if some competitor of Wikipedia comes in. What if they believe that Wikipedia has some huge bias and are spreading propaganda, and all they want to do is set teh record straight. Well they can't do that very effectively when Wikipedia has already made deals with the Internet companies.
    Free information for all is great and all, but Wikipedia does not have a monopoly on that and making their service free ups hurts all other sources of information.
    • Re: Good (Score:5, Insightful)

      by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 ) <gameboyrmh@@@gmail...com> on Thursday November 27, 2014 @09:10AM (#48473633) Journal

      This. Wikipedia needs to drop this idea and embrace net neutrality. Getting their own service exempted from data caps is a very short-term aid to spreading knowledge at best. Their strategy is more self-serving than noble.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        Or not. Wikipedia should absolutely focus on making as much of an impact as it can. While it may be hard for Americans to believe, many other countries regulate telecommunications in a much more ad-hoc way, and wouldn't necessarily see the treatment given to Wikipedia as a template for all other services. That is, many regulators simply look at social benefit and not at principles that are as technical as net neutrality.

    • And what if some competitor of Wikipedia comes in. What if they believe that Wikipedia has some huge bias and are spreading propaganda, and all they want to do is set teh record straight.

      There is one [conservapedia.com], but fortunately it has not spread beyond the USA yet.

      • It is worth noting that the site appears to be more of joke site making fun of fundamentalist christians than a real honest attempt to show another viewpoint.
        The following is a quote from their entry on Bible: "The Bible is a collection of the most logical books and letters ever written. It includes the most beautiful book ever written, the Gospel of Luke, and the most profound book ever written, the Gospel of John. Biblical scientific foreknowledge has anticipated or guided nearly every great human achie
        • Poe's_law [wikipedia.org] again...
        • by gsslay ( 807818 )

          No, I think you'll find that was written in all seriousness. Not all writers and readers of Conservapedia may agree whole-heartedly on its sentiments, but Conservapedia has never had a problem with contributors bringing their own personal opinions into edits. (As long as they don't markedly differ from the owners of Conservapedia.)

    • What if they believe that Wikipedia has some huge bias and are spreading propaganda

      Seeming how Wikipedia has already been accused of bias in the past, I see this as a very relevant example.

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday November 27, 2014 @08:53AM (#48473587)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Part of me agrees with you, but then I think about how much real-world useful information is available on wikipedia - stuff that can make a significant difference to the life of an intelligent person for whom even a $30 monthly internet bill would represent a large slice of their income. Or how valuable, in a business sense, social networking services such as Facebook can be for impoverished community trying to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. And I think that maybe the humanitarian benefits in such

    • by grcumb ( 781340 )

      "We have a complicated relationship to it. We believe in net neutrality in America," said Gayle Karen Young, chief culture and talent officer at the Wikimedia Foundation. But, Young added, offering Wikipedia Zero requires a different perspective elsewhere. "Partnering with telecom companies in the near term, it blurs the net neutrality line in those areas. It fulfills our overall mission, though, which is providing free knowledge."

      Let me state things clearly. These {facebook|wikipedia|whatever}.zero campaigns are a direct and unequivocal attack on Net Neutrality. They are the brainchild of some very smart, cynical people who know exactly how insidious the whole idea is, and whose job it is to set Open Data people against Open Networks people.

      This is not an unintended consequence. This is the consequence.

      My part of the world consists pretty much entirely of developing nations, and when we discussed these zero initiatives, we pretty q

  • If you want to spread internet access to developing countries, how about making internet for free for poor people?
    Instead Wiki, Google and Facebook went on the narcistic train and think that those services are more important then any other service.
    I personally agree that Wikipedia should be free to access to everyone, but I can recognize that other people might disagree and other people think other services are more important. How about somebody in China makes a competing Wikipedia, or have Wikipedia now th

  • To me, this is an excellent example of what goes wrong without Net Neutrality. Wikipedia: I can understand and agree with paying to float data caps to share their information. However, Facebook and Google (and any other company using "zero rating") are abusing their power. If a true Facebook or Google competitor could be built within these countries natively, they would be at a severe disadvantage because of the superpowers they're going up against.
    I don't think that is disputable. The trouble is how to vet

    • Have you considered how incredibly valuable something like Facebook is for large and poorly-organized impoverished communities? It's a communication medium unlike anything that came before it in terms of convenience and power to spontaneously coordinate people, and can be harnessed for substantial economic and organizational good - something *particularly* valuable for the most impoverished portions of humanity. Google as well - it's the closest thing to a real oracle that the world has ever seen - knowle

  • This type of Zero-cap policies favour those companies and organisations that can afford it.

    It is just as bad as any tiered internet.

    Just suppose only CNN could afford to offer a Zero-cap and Fox News couldn't find a sponsor for the same, so much humour would be lost on these poor conservatives with a cap!

    I am convinced that Internet should be treated as a utility similar to roads, you pay for the infrastructure and there can be a % charge on your data use but all are treated equal.

    • Just think if Amazon could ship you products next or even same day for very low prices. While others had to rely on USPS, UPS or FedEx prices to get products to you quickly. The outcry for this would be horrible. There would be blood in the streets.

  • It could be argued the free dissemination of the world's collective knowledge should be widely available to every corner of the green planet.

    It's easy to see how much more valuable access to Wiki is to the average dotter (probably not so much for the Facebook-addicted) and every government would have a differing perspective what was good for their citizens.

    • The Green Planet? Have you been hanging out with E.T.? This planet is mostly blue - the parts that aren't blue are mostly various shades of brown, with, yes, some green mixed in, especially in places sparsely populated by humans.

  • by Bob9113 ( 14996 ) on Thursday November 27, 2014 @09:18AM (#48473659) Homepage

    Every good law has counterpoints. Traffic signals prevent me from driving through the intersection even when there are no other cars there. Assault laws mean you can't punch someone who talks on their phone at the movies. The right to a trial means we can't just execute people we know are guilty.

    One of the other examples I've been hearing lately is about Citizen's United. They say overturning it or passing contradictory legislation could hamper Steven Colbert, or limit the ACLU or EFF. Well, yes, it might. But that would be better, overall, than what we have now.

    The goal is not to have laws that capture every nuance. Government is a blunt weapon that must operate in a non-discriminatory fashion. Special cases exist that show the friction in every law. The objective is not for every special case to be efficient, but for the law overall to be efficient.

    Last mile providers colluding with incumbents to provide preferential access to consumers harms competition in content. Competition is good in the long run, even for the things we like that may appear to be harmed in the short run. There are natural limitations to competition on carriage, we should not extend those competition limitations to making discriminatory deals with content providers.

    • by jythie ( 914043 )
      True, but this is why it is important to get some visibility on all the good and bad points since, in theory at least, the law can be crafted to try to minimize the impact of the later.
  • We are not going to get 'net neutrality' in every country, even if it was federally regulated (or passed by congress) There are always going to be some limitations in other parts of the world, just by the distances and bottlenecks in the structure.

    (well maybe we could get the new congress and senate to repeal the speed of light limit, along with the laws of thermodynamics.)

  • ... a petition to demand Wikipedia sign on to Net Neutrality. You heard it on Slashdot first.
  • Maybe I'm not understanding the full picture, but data caps seems like a farce to me; at least in the U.S. They put the data caps in place, claiming their networks cannot handle the load, then make some of the most data-hogging apps such as streaming music exempt from them? What am I missing here?
    • by crioca ( 1394491 )
      Network congestion is a pretext (a reason given in justification of a course of action that is not the real reason), the real reason for data caps is two-fold:

      1. It allows ISPs to use a pricing model that takes advantage of market segmentation

      2. It provides ISPs with leverage they can apply to other market entities to gain benefits, such as cash or quid pro quo (preferential treatment).

  • Net Neutrality, just like freedom of speech, or any other broad principle, has some downsides. But ultimately the good vastly outweighs the bad.
  • It's not an ideal. It's not even optimal. There are arguments for imbalance. Net neutrality is a solution to a problem in the US- that of a small cartel having undue control over the internet.

    There are reasons you might want to have a two tier internet, and even if there aren't it's not impossible that we might want them in the future. Most countries there's enough competition for this to self regulate to a degree.
  • Wikipedia has been a little hesitant to weigh in on net neutrality

    You can't expect them to make a decision one way or the other. Have you never heard of WP:NPOV?

  • Wikipedia like The Koch brothers understand that to enforce net neutrality is to be marxist.

Real Users find the one combination of bizarre input values that shuts down the system for days.

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