
Joining the voices in support of net neutrality, Vimeo has issued a blog post this morning that stands against the new internet fast lane rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission. Decrying the idea of a “two-tiered internet,” Darnell Witt, the director of support and community at Vimeo, wrote, “We’re calling on the FCC to demand ‘net neutrality.’”
Begun in 2004, Vimeo notes the various ways it’s benefited from a “free and open internet” as a video sharing platform since its inception. HD video and Vimeo On Demand could have been made “prohibitively expensive” through the existence of tolls for speedier internet, Vimeo argues, further noting the danger of broadband companies taking control: “They wil favor their own content over everyone else’s.”
Vimeo also calls the online community (i.e. pretty much everybody) to action by suggesting internet users in support of net neutrality to submit supporting comments via the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Battle for the Net to the FCC. The blog post provides sample comments for various users to submit, whether they’re independent filmmakers posting online or consumers enjoying maximized digital content.
Vimeo’s blog post also refers to the comment letter submitted to the FCC by the Internet Association, which boasts members like Google, Yahoo, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and Netflix. In the letter, the Internet Association wrote that “there is a compelling public interest for an open internet, and we stand with the internet’s vast community of users to keep it that way.”