WP Engine Supports Net Neutrality

As you may have already heard, today is the Internet Day of Action, a petition to preserve net neutrality on the web in an effort to ensure a fair and open internet. Net neutrality is a principle that maintains all internet traffic should be treated equally and that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may not block, speed or slow down legal websites — or give preferential treatment to others, including their own.

The principle currently governs web traffic in the majority of the Western Hemisphere, although things might change in the U.S. with recent FCC efforts to revoke governing how ISPs treat traffic.

The FCC’s vote to revoke net neutrality rules is something that has caused turmoil among many who fear larger, richer companies will now have the ability to pay for “fast lanes” while smaller businesses could languish with sluggish bandwidth. If our current net neutrality laws are revoked, bigger companies could potentially pay ISPs to prioritize their traffic above others, while smaller businesses’ traffic could become deprioritized, with business potentially suffering due to a diminished user experience as a result of slow load times.

As supporters of a free and open internet, WP Engine also supports net neutrality. Today’s companies can’t operate without the web. Our platform powers thousands of WordPress sites of all sorts and sizes. WordPress, which powers 28 percent of the web (and growing), is the largest open-source content management system in the world and was built to democratize publishing on the web.

Over the past 14 years, the open source nature of WordPress has created countless opportunities for hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to innovate, publish new ideas on the web, and build successful businesses from the ground up. With these founding principles in mind, we declare our support for a free, open, and unbiased internet, where everyone—big, medium, or small—has an ability to innovate, be creative, make great products, and improve the lives of millions worldwide.

To join the Internet Day of Action, you can sign the petition at battleforthenet.com/july12