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How do we get lawmakers to understand the difference between the data going over an internet connection, the various transport protocols being used, and the end result that's being rendered in the browser? If this is done poorly, by regulating network traffic overall like the FCC seems to want to do, we'll start to have real issues with overreach. Web content, streaming content, game traffic, etc. will all be held to some standard, or set of standards. We, as the tech community, could get out in front of the problem. Some of issues raised in the article stem from the combination of almost effortless publishing at a massive scale, combined with complete anonymity. We could define a standard that would allow for some kind of traceability or transparency, maybe public key cryptography, to prove identity. Social media sites like Facebook could voluntarily implement the standard. Browsers would be able to render some kind of simple UI indicator to mark content source trust, just like we have a lock to signify HTTPS today. We can either wait and see what happens, or propose a technical and voluntary solution that would allow public internet traffic to remain as free as it does today. Edit: it would be in Facebook's best interest to implement such a standard, because they clearly realize they have to do something, and this wouldn't get in the way of their ad revenue. |