SoylentNews

Netflix Slows Data Transmission for Certain Customers

posted by CoolHand on Tuesday March 29 2016, @07:02PM   
from the dealing-with-hypocrites dept.

cmn32480 writes:

From CNET:

Angry Netflix customers are a force to be reckoned with, and they're the ones owed an explanation about why the company would slow the transmission of video streams to some wireless customers without informing them.

Netflix found itself in the hot seat after admitting, in a Wall Street Journal story Thursday, that for five years it had been tamping down service to Verizon and AT&T customers. What's more, the Los Gatos, California, company said the policy excluded customers of T-Mobile and Sprint.

Critics immediately cried foul on Netflix, seeing hypocrisy on the part of a company that two years ago led a fight to require the Federal Communications Commission to adopt "strong" Net neutrality rules that would ban Internet service providers from slowing traffic under almost any circumstances. Netflix also wanted the FCC to require operators to be more transparent in how they manage their networks.

But the most galling aspect may be that Netflix never notified its customers that it was imposing a slowdown.

"There is nothing wrong with what Netflix is doing," said Berin Szoka, president of TechFreedom, a group that has opposed the FCC's Net neutrality regulations. "Except for not making it public."

---

Original Submission

• Isn't throttling the exclusive right of ISPs and n (Score: 4, Insightful) by DannyB on Tuesday March 29 2016, @08:37PM

  by DannyB (5839) on Tuesday March 29 2016, @08:37PM (#324506) Journal

  How dare Netflix throttle its own traffic!

  Doesn't Netflix know that the only proper way to throttle traffic is to throttle someone else's traffic?

  If you are just one of the end points of a connection, why should you be allowed to decide how much traffic you want to send over the wire to the other party?

  Throttling of internet traffic should ONLY be allowed when you are being paid by one or both ends of a connection, and none of the data being throttled is coming from or intended for you. (eg, when the content itself is none of your business, then you can throttle it.)

  Doesn't Netflix throttling violate some kind of right that is exclusively reserved to networks?
  /s

  --
  The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+2
  Insightful=2, Total=2
  Extra 'Insightful' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		4