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Respect My Net: online platform to report net neutrality violations

By EDRi · March 3, 2016

Today, we are re-launching RespectMyNet.eu – a joint initiative by civil rights groups including EDRi, La Quadrature du Net, Bits of Freedom, Access Now, Digitale Gesellschaft, IT-Pol, Initiative für Netzfreiheit, Nurpa, Open Rights Group, Xnet and several individual contributors.

What is Respect My Net?
Internet users should be in charge of their Internet connections. Instead, however, Internet access providers increasingly undermine this expectation and limit our online communications and behaviour. They do this, for example, by blocking or restricting access to certain kinds of online services, content and applications. The “Respect My Net” platform will allow individuals to report such abusive behaviour by Internet access providers.

This initiative is essential to ensure that new rules on defending the open and competitive internet are effectively implemented. The Internet is about freedom, communication and innovation – not about short-term, anti-competitive strategies of access providers.

said Joe McNamee, Executive Director of European Digital Rights.

Without net neutrality, our rights to freedom of expression, freedom of choice, innovation, competition, privacy and communication are at stake. Respect My Net is a simple platform that provides you with the opportunity of reporting how Internet access providers are violating your freedoms online, by blocking, throttling or otherwise interfering with your Internet access. In addition, the platform provides you with an overview of easy-to-use tools which help monitoring whether or not your Internet Service Provider is manipulating or restricting your Internet traffic.

This project will also be useful for European telecom regulators, which now have to enforce the Regulation 2015/2120 on open internet access (aka net neutrality). “Respect My Net” will be complementary to the campaign platform Save The Internet, which will be relaunched soon to accompany the work of the Body of EU Telecoms Regulators known as “BEREC”.