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Google and Facebook's silence on net neutrality is deafening. It makes no sense. Are they thinking they'll be able to pay for access to the customers that their

by guelo 9y ago

Google and Facebook's silence on net neutrality is deafening. It makes no sense. Are they thinking they'll be able to pay for access to the customers that their competitors won't be able to afford?

claytonjy 9y ago
I'd wager that's exactly what they're thinking. This hurts consumers, it hurts potentially-but-not-yet-big tech companies, and it even hurts currently-established players in the short term, but on a not-too-long time horizon it cements the big players' near-monopolistic positions in their respective markets. What's $50mm/yr in "fast lane" payments to ISP's when it prevents others from disrupting your multi-trillion-dollar tech conglomerate?
staltz 9y ago
Good point, but then again, access to Facebook is probably going to be the most demanded by ISP customers, and therefore FB company has little to worry. Google, on the other, as a search engine company, may appear to depend on the open web, but they don't necessarily need to be an internet company. They are a "world information" company, and they can achieve that by moving content to Google servers (like they do with AMP), or simply providing intelligent content through their AI who is learning from content on the open web. I won't be surprised if/when Google stops being a de facto internet company and becomes an information company.
thesuitonym 9y ago
Very likely. At least in Faceboook's corner, they might be looking to make a tidy sum on this, I mean, who would want to use the ISP that doesn't have Facebook?
bigbugbag 9y ago
Aren't those two mentioned in the death of transit ? Besides, facebook is a fierce opposant to net neutrality, remember their facebook basics offer as an attempt to conquer more users in emergent markets ? Pay less than a regular ISP and have an internet access limited to facebook and its partners, the exact opposite of net neutrality.

by guelo 9y ago

Google and Facebook's silence on net neutrality is deafening. It makes no sense. Are they thinking they'll be able to pay for access to the customers that their competitors won't be able to afford?

claytonjy 9y ago

I'd wager that's exactly what they're thinking. This hurts consumers, it hurts potentially-but-not-yet-big tech companies, and it even hurts currently-established players in the short term, but on a not-too-long time horizon it cements the big players' near-monopolistic positions in their respective markets. What's $50mm/yr in "fast lane" payments to ISP's when it prevents others from disrupting your multi-trillion-dollar tech conglomerate?

staltz 9y ago

Good point, but then again, access to Facebook is probably going to be the most demanded by ISP customers, and therefore FB company has little to worry. Google, on the other, as a search engine company, may appear to depend on the open web, but they don't necessarily need to be an internet company. They are a "world information" company, and they can achieve that by moving content to Google servers (like they do with AMP), or simply providing intelligent content through their AI who is learning from content on the open web. I won't be surprised if/when Google stops being a de facto internet company and becomes an information company.

thesuitonym 9y ago

Very likely. At least in Faceboook's corner, they might be looking to make a tidy sum on this, I mean, who would want to use the ISP that doesn't have Facebook?

bigbugbag 9y ago

Aren't those two mentioned in the death of transit ? Besides, facebook is a fierce opposant to net neutrality, remember their facebook basics offer as an attempt to conquer more users in emergent markets ? Pay less than a regular ISP and have an internet access limited to facebook and its partners, the exact opposite of net neutrality.