The JS library makes your site load pictures slowly

Sep 12, 2014 13:41 GMT  ·  By

As the debate about Net neutrality intensifies, it has become quite interesting to see how people divide on the matter. Thankfully, most people believe that the open Internet must be protected to ensure not only people’s freedom on the Internet, but also the future of tech innovation.

The prospect that some service providers want to control connection speeds to various sites if net neutrality dies makes most of us shudder. Comcast, as you may know, is one of these companies that has been seeking to control as much of the market as possible not only by proposing to merge with Time Warner Cable, but also by throttling with the speeds of certain sites to get them to sign peering deals.

The best example for this is Netflix, which started losing customers because of how bad the service had gotten for Comcast users. Data from the company shows a steep drop in speed since the end of 2013 and up until the point when Netflix agreed to sign a deal with Comcast.

Internet Slowdown Day with a twist

The Internet Slowdown Day was organized to support Net neutrality and to oppose the various measures the ISPs want to take to gain control over the Internet and to pump up their funds. The always-spinning loading wheels posted on dozens of sites across the Internet were only there to make a point, they didn’t really slow down Internet access.

Over on Github, a JavaScript library popped up recently which helps site admins to take things a step further – actually make your site appear as if it’s been slowed down. Dubbed ComcastifyJS and created by The Onion, the package helps you fiddle with the code in order to obtain several results such as really slow loading pictures.

ComcastifyJS actually makes the embedded images with a color overlay and displays the image as if it’s barely loading due to connectivity issues.

If you’ve been on the Internet for long enough, you surely remember when such a thing wasn’t exactly uncommon. Much has changed since then due to technological progress, and we’re hoping to never get back to that situation.

The lack of Net neutrality, however, would very likely bring back such scenarios. On top of this, with average speeds of 38.6 Mb/s, Comcast’s Internet isn’t all that great even at its best. One can only image what’s to happen if the open Internet is not protected and ISPs are allowed to do whatever it is they want.