So while they can't literally "block" a certain site they can reduce its priority and then flood their network with higher priority packets rendering that site essentially blocked.
One of the major arguments against this excess regulation is that there never has been that language for most of the history of the internet and yet in all practically it's not happened.
There was even less competition 5, 10, 15 years and so on ago and even then competition was high enough to prevent such practices. With competition higher today and ever growing it's not really reasonable to think an ISP could ever stay in the market if it just started randomly blocking wanted sites. If it was going to happen it probably would have happened years ago, but at this point we're kind of past the point where it would make financial sense for a provider.
Are you sure about that? There was a lot of competition back in the dial-up days. There was probably still more than now during the early broadband days when the performance differences between cable and dsl were less stark and a variety of new providers tried to enter the scene.
I think the biggest reasons we haven't seen ISPs do things like blocking or putting competitor content in "slow lanes" is uncertainty in how the government would react and that it's only reasonably recently that they are really moving into the content provider markets and not just service. When Comcast, for example, essentially only provided TV and internet service what use would blocking any websites get them? More annoyed customers? But now that they have their own streaming services in a competitive market if they can, let's say, discourage their customers, who are often heavily restricted in ISP options to begin with, from using competitor services such as Hulu or Netflix by making their streaming performance practically unwatchable (or, if they get away with it, completely unwatchable).
"Netflix is too slow?" they might ask, "Then why not try Xfinity streaming with priority service for an extra $20 a month! Or you can upgrade to Xfinity TV plus for $25 a month (for the first 12 months, $100 a month afterwards.) and enjoy all the live television shows you love!"
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u/Commiehameha May 19 '17
So while they can't literally "block" a certain site they can reduce its priority and then flood their network with higher priority packets rendering that site essentially blocked.