Shutting down their API is the direct anti-competitive action which goes against net neutrality. It stifles innovation.
Comment on The FCC is Expected to Propose the Return of Net Neutrality Protections Oct 19th
hiddengoat@kbin.social 11 months agoThat has literally nothing to do with net neutrality.
All net neutrality means is that at the ISP level all traffic is treated the same and the ISP cannot step in and do shit like, for example, block all traffic coming from a VPN server. Or block all torrent packets. Or block all ENCRYPTED packets. Or slowly deliver Facebook packets because Twitter paid them to do so.
All traffic is treated equally, regardless of content.
What an individual website does with its own API is not even in this conversation.
jordanlund@lemmy.world 11 months ago
pickscrape@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That argument is similar to the whole “platform N taking down content violates the 1st amendment” argument. It’s a non sequitur.
jordanlund@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I’ll see if I can make it more sense for you:
If you argue that the pathways that make up the internet should not be artifically restricted or gated as a means of shuttibg down competition, while at the same time turning around and shutting down your own public pathways, that’s a huge problem.
Nougat@kbin.social 11 months ago
Setting aside for the moment the fact that net neutrality has to do with IP traffic (layer 3, network) and not API availability (layer 7, application) --
Reddit's API is not a "public pathway." It is a private gateway into the reddit environment. They can charge whatever they like for it, because it is a part of their application.
The way they went about changing to their current fee model was undeniably shitty, and yeah, they're trying to prop up ahead of IPO. None of that has anything to do with net neutrality. You're wrong on this one, time to let it go.
Stumblinbear@pawb.social 11 months ago
There’s a world of difference between the road itself and the people who own the cars.
hiddengoat@kbin.social 11 months ago
Reddit is not a fucking ISP, now are they?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality
Learn before you make yourself look like an idiot.
jordanlund@lemmy.world 11 months ago
And, if you argue that an ISP shouldn’t be engaging in anti-competitive networking while at the same time (or in this case, a couple of years later) doing the same thing, that’s a huge problem.
And make no mistake, what they did WAS anti-competitive. They wanted to shut down the 3rd party apps that put a magnifying glass on all the problems with the official reddit app just before a proposed IPO.
RagingRobot@lemmy.world 11 months ago
The difference is that reddit has no obligation to anyone to provide an API. Not every company has a public API. You have no guarantee to the right to see reddit content. it’s theirs. I don’t like that but it’s the reality. They weren’t obligated to build an API and they aren’t obligated to maintain one especially not for free. I would argue it’s in their best interest to do so but they don’t have to and that’s where we are.
Net neutrality deals with the network though including the part reddit lives at.The things that every person does (or did) have a right to connect with if they choose to. The means for connection all together.
gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
Not sure if that holds
They’re not stopping competition, they’re gatekeeping access to their system
Competition is allowed still, for example, the site were using right now to communicate this very conversation
jordanlund@lemmy.world 11 months ago
They are stopping competition. They didn’t want superior 3rd party apps competing with their super shitty app just before a proposed IPO.
psycho_driver@lemmy.world 11 months ago
In other words Net Neutrality is about stalling the further enshitification of everything.