Voila_Capture 2014-06-06_10-53-36_AM

Much of the discussion about cable company fuckery has (rightfully) centered on Comcast, but they’re hardly the only culprits here. Verizon is one of net neutrality’s staunchest opponents (they actually claim it’s their free speech right under the First Amendment to slow or block content of their choosing) and, unlike Comcast, they’re not bound by a previous agreement to wait until 2018 (ostensibly) to start fucking with your favorite streaming services.

So, Netflix – which, in April, struck a deal with Verizon similar to the deal they struck with Comcast in March – has started calling Verizon out on their slow broadband speeds.

As you might imagine, Verizon doesn’t appreciate the public shaming… and they’re threatening legal action. On what grounds, exactly, is unclear. From ReadWrite:

Verizon issued Netflix a cease and desist order Thursday over an error notice the latter has been posting since mid-May to some subscribers, explaining the slow delivery of online videos.

Threatening legal action, Verizon also demanded that Netflix provide a list of customers who have seen that notice, as they would be Verizon subscribers as well. Netflix’s gee-whiz response, as reported by CNBC, was priceless: “This is about consumers not getting what they paid for from their broadband provider,” Netflix spokesman Jonathan Friedland said. “We are trying to provide more transparency, just like we do with the ISP Speed Index, and Verizon is trying to shut down that discussion.”

The irony of a company that claims it is their First Amendment right to slow broadband speeds threatening a lawsuit against a company actually using its First Amendment right to explain to its customers why their broadband speeds are slow is positively delicious. It’s some real Inception-level bullshit.

Here’s a recent chart from the Washington Post which shows Netflix streaming speeds (according to Netflix) since January 2013:

Voila_Capture 2014-06-06_10-25-28_AM

As you might imagine, something happened this January. On the 14th, the DC Circuit Court “determined in the case of Verizon v. Federal Communications Commission that the FCC has no authority to enforce Network Neutrality rules.” In other words: starting that day, broadband providers could legally screw with streaming speeds. Which is exactly what they did. [Hilariously, Comcast claimed that they couldn’t, didn’t or wouldn’t, and yet it wasn’t until they reached a deal with Netflix, in late February, that Netflix’s stream miraculously(!) picked up speed.]

Anecdotally: I’ve had FIOS for two years at the 35/35 download/upload speed, which is plenty fast for everyday web surfing, running Philadelphia’s most popular sports blog and watching Netflix. And indeed, until around Christmas, I hardly ever noticed lag in Netflix streaming. I watched the first season of House of Cards on both my iPad and Apple TV without issue, I streamed the entire series of Breaking Bad over the course of about six weeks last fall on my Apple TV without so much as a hiccup, and I’ve watched countless documentaries on every device in the house without any buffering– all in HD, without exception. But since around February, that’s all changed. All of a sudden, the same Apple TV buffers, however briefly, before starting a program. Netflix on my iPad Air, watched in bed, about 12 feet from the router, often requires a restart to get HD video without absurd buffering. It’s a direct result of net neutrality rules being thrown out the window. This is no longer some abstract concept– it’s actually impacting how you watching streaming content. And that’s just the start.