
Cloudflare Might Be Exploring a Way to Slow Down Ajit Pai's Home Internet Speed - sus_007
https://twitter.com/eastdakota/status/933490344624304130
======
LeeHwang
Hilarious.

We also need to put pressure on them to simplify and close loopholes in the
400 page net neutrality document.

I think an NRA-styled non-partisan single issue internet freedom organization
is needed to put pressure on our elected officials. It's amazing how much
politicians fear the NRA, I wish we could get them to fear eroding our
freedom.

Cloudflare's example is also a great reason why we also need to enforce
neutrality on more than just the ISP to keep the internet free and open. The
whole system from DNS providers, hosting, and other major internet companies
need to have neutrality enforced on them.

Edit: Adding Source [https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2015/03/12/392544534...](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2015/03/12/392544534/fcc-publishes-full-text-of-net-neutrality-rules)

~~~
tzs
> We also need to put pressure on them so simplify and close loopholes in the
> 400 page net neutrality document.

What 400 page net neutrality document?

If you are referring to the 300-400 page document that contains the 2015 Open
Internet order that Pai and others have been fond of waving around as an
example of how the 2015 rules were massive, complicated, micromanaging
overregulation, they were not being entirely honest.

That document actually consists of a long discussion of net neutrality from a
historical, legal, and policy standpoint and an explanation of why they picked
the rules that they did, a long response to issues raised in the millions of
comments received during the public comment period, and the actual
regulations.

The actual regulations are about 8 pages.

~~~
wdr1
Any chance you have a link handy?

~~~
tzs
Here is the 400 page document that I think is usually the one being waved
around.

The first link is from the FCC site, but has been slow lately, so I've also
given a link to a copy at scribd.

[https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-15-24A1.pd...](https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-15-24A1.pdf)

[https://www.scribd.com/document/258492433/Full-net-
neutralit...](https://www.scribd.com/document/258492433/Full-net-neutrality-
rules)

Note: the page numbers in the table of contents are way off. Apparently the
TOC was generated for printing in either a large font or on smaller sheets. In
the following I will give page numbers as printed at the bottom of the pages
of the scribd version. The FCC version bottom of page numbers are 5600 higher
than the scribd version, so if I say page X, that is page X+5600 in the FCC
version. In other words the numbering runs 1-400 in the scribd version, and
5601-6000 in the FCC version.

The actual rules are in APPENDIX A, "Final Rules". This starts on page 283 and
ends on 290.

------
loganabbott
Prince responded to Slashdot here
[https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/11/23/149208/cloudflare-m...](https://tech.slashdot.org/story/17/11/23/149208/cloudflare-
might-be-exploring-a-way-to-slow-down-fcc-chairman-ajit-pais-home-internet-
speeds)

In a statement to Slashdot, Mr. Prince said: Probably the easiest thing would
be to slow down requests from the FCC's IP ranges. Or put up an interstitial
whenever someone from those IPs visits a site behind us. I think it's less
likely we'd do it across the board ourselves, more likely we'd implement it as
an option our customers could opt in to. Basically taking this a step further.

------
eganist
Quite a number of people are concerned about how Cloudflare might find Ajit
Pai's IP address(es). It's probably quite a bit easier than that given recent
changes in legislation which, ironically, Mr. Pai endorsed
([http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/03/technology/internet-
privacy-...](http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/03/technology/internet-privacy-law-
trump/index.html)):

Just buy the information from all land and wireless providers.

------
awalton
I joked that if Facebook, Google, Netflix and the other multibillion dollar
user-trackers out there shut out Pai and the FCC, their tune would change
overnight.

I did not think for a microsecond anyone would be brave enough to implement
it.

Kudos Cloudflare.

~~~
heurist
Facebook, google, amazon, etc all benefit from Pai's decision if they deem ISP
fees affordable. It keeps competition from emerging and, with cable-like
packages, would put their services in front of every Internet user.

------
ploggingdev
Not sure how I feel about this. So they want to teach Ajit Pai about some of
the potential consequences of killing net neutrality? I'm pretty sure he fully
understands the consequences and he's most likely a puppet for the powerful
forces who are hell bent on killing NN. It's worthwhile trying to understand
who was behind the push to end net neutrality and how they managed to get so
far. If anyone has links about this topic, feel free to share them.

While a part of me would love to see what's mentioned in the conversation, I
hope Cloudflare does not stray from their principle of being a utility
provider and I don't want them to abuse their power to target individuals that
they disagree with.

~~~
iuguy
I agree with OP, this is dangerous ground but the CEO in question has learned
nothing from prior dangerous activity.

This is the same cloudflare CEO that decided it was going to arbitrarily block
the Daily Stormer because he woke up in a bad mood.

If people support net neutrality, they're against peoples' Internet
connectivity being interfered with by corporations, and by extension they're
against this. If they support interfering with Ajit Pai's connectivity, then
they're by extension against net neutrality.

~~~
kazagistar
> If people support net neutrality, they're against peoples' Internet
> connectivity being interfered with by corporations

No, I'm against throttling extortion being used by powerful actors for
selfish, monopolistic reasons. Not every act of throttling is inherently evil
or something, it's just bad because of the damages it causes. So some acts
(like throttling people who have the power to affect policy to show them the
dangers of deregulation) are perfectly acceptable morally.

However, I also belive in due process and just laws, so ideally, which is why
it makes sense to have laws in place that prevent all Internet throttling
extortion, regardless of the objectives, so that they may be simple and
enforceable without loopholes.

Just because you want something prohibited does not mean you think all
instances of that act are wrong. Just that we would be far better off with the
law then without it.

------
promanescu
How would this be materially different from just walking over to Ajit Pai's
house and physically cutting his cable? It's targeting a specific individual
to deny them the use of their property; pretty sure that's a felony, but
either way it has nothing to do with Net Neutrality.

Corporations using their power and resources to threaten and manipulate the
federal government - yeah, that's something we need lots more of.

~~~
dreamcompiler
It's not the same. Ajit Pai says "We no longer need a law that prevents ISPs
from saying 'Nice Internet you got there. Be a shame if something were to
happen to it.'"

So then an ISP comes along and says 'Hey there Mr. Pai. Nice Internet you got
there. Be a shame if something were to happen to it.'

That ISP is simply demonstrating what it means not to have such a law any
more.

------
tyingq
Would be funny if it were some hacker group. Not so funny when it's a for
profit company playing on whatever whim it likes.

Anonymous should take over this task.

~~~
vidarh
Just maybe the FCC should consider regulations to prevent for-profit companies
from "playing on whatever whim it likes" then, instead of making it easier.

------
stephenr
regardless of whether you agree with net neutrality or this guys approach to
making a point, surely this makes _some_ people think twice about "fuck it
just use cloudflare" \- particularly if you just need tls and page caching.
DDOS prevention is hard but most sites aren't unlikely to need that.

------
_jomo
Perhaps a naive question, but how are they going to figure out Pai's IP
address without great-firewall-tier DPI?

~~~
tyingq
Limited options for ISPs. They can map a home address to likely possibilities,
then use their vast cleartext MITM capabilities to narrow it down based on
traffic content. Chilling really. I'd rather some hacker group take on the
task.

------
DArcMattr
How petty of them.

------
kalev
Lol, just a simple tweet. Move on people.

------
gist
What is his 'equally effective way'?

~~~
_jomo
According to Cloudflare, over 10% of internet traffic flows through their
network [0] of 6+ million websites [1] and 35% "market share" in DNS service
[2]. They could slow down access to their network for Ajit Pai.

0:
[https://www.cloudflare.com/insights/](https://www.cloudflare.com/insights/)

1:
[https://www.cloudflare.com/reliability/](https://www.cloudflare.com/reliability/)

2: [https://www.cloudflare.com/](https://www.cloudflare.com/)

------
leifaffles
This isn't funny. Not only is CloudFlare's CEO scheming about going after the
FCC chairman, but also those who live near him.

This is the second time in recent memory that this guy has been worked up by
his political feelings and saw his company as a tool to punish his opponents.

As a CloudFlare user, this worries me. This is childish. Adults don't pull
this crap.

~~~
Buttons840
Yeah. There should be a rule against this. /s

Seriously, this is just part of the "innovation" Ajit is promoting. There will
be nothing to stop Comcast from throttling sites for political reasons.
CloudFlare will not be the only one to shape internet traffic for personal
gain.

~~~
leifaffles
"People will do bad things if we don't have net neutrality regulations. Let's
show them how it's done by doing bad things ourselves."

In what whacky moral universe is this okay?

Most parents smack this out of their kids by the time they're 4.

~~~
ethbro
It's not like the expectation is that his internet will be slowed down
forever.

I think it's perfectly fair, if legal under all current laws.

"This is the future you want" doesn't sink in until your kids are bitching
every day that YouTube is buffering.

~~~
leifaffles
If activists are willing to _intentionally make the world worse_ to prove a
point, then reasonable people start to wonder:

"How much of the problem is real and how much of it is inflicted by activists
who are willing to burn down the world in order to 'win'?"

~~~
Devasta
But most protests make things a bit worse while they are happening, even in
relatively benign ways as disrupting traffic. If they don't disrupt the status
quo in some way then they are hardly going to be noticed.

------
leifaffles
TLDR of this "strategy":

"Hey guys. We should have a law against being an asshole."

"Nah, people seem pretty nice."

"I'll show you, fuckface!"

~~~
AlexandrB
> "Nah, people seem pretty nice."

I'm sure a lot of people hold this opinion about Comcast. Oh wait:
[https://consumerist.com/2014/04/08/congratulations-to-
comcas...](https://consumerist.com/2014/04/08/congratulations-to-comcast-
your-2014-worst-company-in-america/)

~~~
calvano915
It saddens me to be reminded by your post that the valuable contributions to
discourse provided by Consumerist came to end not too long ago :(

------
droopybuns
this is really foolish.

------
laretluval
Bad move. If this works it will show that preferential treatment is already
possible, thus making the existing net neutrality meaningless.

~~~
nerdponx
You'd think Cloudflare would have learned from the Stormfront incident

~~~
dleslie
How'd that resolve for them?

~~~
JshWright
The only net change is that there are fewer Nazis claiming Cloudflare supports
them...

