Netflix slows down customers? video without permission for more than five years

Netflix has been throttling -- or reducing the speed and quality of -- its customers’ streaming video service without their permission for more than five years. The Wall Street Journal reported late last week that the popular online service and net neutrality proponent was responsible for slowing the video streaming on AT&T and Verizon’s mobile networks.

Netflix went on the defensive, saying it was trying to prevent customers from exceeding mobile data caps. But that’s not the issue here. Netflix’s customers have the right to know what they’re paying for and to have their service reduced only after “opting in.” Somehow Netflix -- a vocal advocate of full transparency on the Internet -- thinks it doesn’t have to follow those same rules.

Netflix Throttles Its Videos on AT&T, Verizon Networks (Wall Street Journal, Mar. 24, 2016)

Netflix Has Quietly Been Throttling Mobile Video for Years (Gizmodo, Mar. 24, 2016)