Sniffing the scent of free publicity, Google and Facebook steamroll into net neutrality protest Hark, ye internet peasants. Google and Facebook today trumpeted that they will join the day of protest against efforts to kill off America's net neutrality rules. The news was welcomed by Fight for the Future, the organization behind the protest planned for Wednesday, July 12. But it also noted pointedly that neither of the …
I don't think they're fooling anyone with this stunt. These big companies are part of the problem, offering their own sort of "fast lane" for advertisers in the form of SEO.
So even though this is "free" publicity, it's certainly going to have some costs in its effect on PR.
Lesson: Don't jump on the net neutrality bandwagon at the 11th hour. The Internet is awash with time stamps and a collective memory that will DEFINITELY notice if someone is flip-flopping to gain brownie points.
It would be nice to think so. Unfortunately, humans have a proven track record of great trouble remembering anything past what happened last week.
As such, I'm quite sure there will be many, many people taking this at face value and remembering that "Google stood up for us", forgetting entirely that Google has more data on our surfing habits than the NSA does.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
