Some of the world's biggest online companies have voiced their concerns over the Federal Communication Commission's (FCC's) plans to enable ISPs whose customers pay the most money for their connection to speed up the internet.
Companies including Netflix, Etsy, FourSquare, KickStarter, Mozilla, Reddit, PornHub and Vimeo all put widgets on their sites showing what would happen if the FCC was able to limit the speed of some internet connections and speed up others - many would have to wait for pages to load.
Meanwhile, Twitter, Tumblr and Google all issued statements against the plans, saying allowing some companies, including cable and telecom companies in the US to provide a faster service, is unfair and companies should not be able to prioritise some connections over others.
Derek Slater, Google's policy manager told the Guardian: "The internet was designed to empower people. To get online, you need to use an internet access provider. But once you're online, you decide what to do and where to go. Anyone, anywhere can share their opinions freely and any entrepreneur, big or small, can build, launch and innovate without having to get permission first."
However, supporters of the FCC's plans say that ISPs won't be able to decrease quality, but will be allowed to experiment with new business models and tiers of service - ie. allowing those who use a lot of bandwidth and pay more money for their service to access the web faster than those who are using lower-tier services.
The FCC said it has been forced to take this action because technology has evolved so fast that many people are accessing the internet using mobile devices, which does not give them the best experience.
