Thread by @vanschewick

The European Commission has been contemplating radical changes to the Internet in Europe that would violate #netneutrality and upend how the internet economy has worked for decades. Its proposal: the long-discredited idea that websites and apps should pay broadband providers.

But we only know the Commission is pursuing this proposal (put forward by Europe's largest phone companies), thanks to occasional comments to the press and other reporting.

Today, another press report says the Commission could start a public consultation at Christmas time, when most people have better things to do than file online responses to an idea that was rejected as counter-productive & wrong ten years ago.
handelsblatt.com/technik/it-int… #NetworkFees

If true, that’s an outrageous move from the Commission, which has consistently refused to be public & transparent about how it wants to transform the Internet in the EU. 6 EU countries just warned it not to sneak the proposal into an unrelated measure & to stop being so secretive

While the Commission hasn't shared an actual proposal, press reports indicate it wants to force websites to pay broadband companies for the data the broadband providers’ customers request, echoing a proposal from big telecom companies that was rejected as a bad idea 10 years ago

In other words, you currently pay your ISP so you can watch a YouTube video. In the Commission’s proposal, YouTube would ALSO pay your ISP so you can watch that video.
How and how much? Which companies would pay? Nobody knows because the Commission refuses to release any details

There are so few details that when BEREC, the EU’s top telecom regulator, evaluated the proposal, it was stuck evaluating the *assumptions* underlying the proposal. BEREC found no evidence that the proposal is justified & said it puts the internet at risk. cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2022/11/e…

But the Commission appears to be barreling on, full speed ahead. According to a press leak, it plans to send out private questionnaires to some telecom & tech companies asking for input. Who gets to give feedback, and what are the questions? Nobody knows. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

EU citizens deserve better. If the Commission really thinks it has a case for upending the internet & violating #netneutrality, it needs to share its proposal publicly and let citizens & experts weigh in. The internet is too important to be left to politicians’ backroom scheming.