EU net neutrality plans won't kill website blocking
Plans by the European Union to prohibit Internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking or throttling customers' access under new net neutrality rules will not have any impact on website blocking at a member state level.
As reported by our London bureau on Tuesday, EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes set out plans to prevent anti-competitive blocking of rival services, such as those that compete with their own offerings.
She cited services such as Skype and WhatsApp being blocked or degraded "simply to avoid the competition." But the EU has no plans to intervene in court-sanctioned website blocking, such as The Pirate Bay blocks in the U.K. and other file-sharing sites. All the EU is promising is to prevent the "blocking or throttling of competing services."
