分析 FCC 對網路中立性的留言,將鄉民與機器人分開來分析

Boing Boing 的立場其實還蠻鮮明的,所以有時候他們的新聞看看就好...

但這篇真的很有趣,把 FCC (美國的聯邦通信委員會) 上兩千兩百萬則對網路中立性的留言拿出來分析,結果發現真人與機器人的差異超明顯 XDDD:「Analysis of 22 million FCC comments show that humans love Net Neutrality and bots really, really hate it」,引用的文章在「Discovering truth through lies on the internet - FCC comments analyzed」這邊。

分析可以發現,真人偏好網路中立,而機器人反對網路中立 XDDD:(其實大家心裡都有底是怎麼玩出來的... 只是這次有機會分析,讓事情更明顯)

Data analysis company Gravwell ingested 22,000,000 comments sent to the FCC's docket on Net Neutrality and posted their preliminary findings, which are that the majority of comments came from bots, and these bots oppose Net Neutrality; of the comments that appear to originate with humans, the vast majority favor Net Neutrality.

文章中列出幾個有趣的現象,像是機器人的 comment 大量重複:

A very small minority of comments are unique -- only 17.4% of the 22,152,276 total. The highest occurrence of a single comment was over 1 million.

甚至是 pornhub.com 的郵件位置 XDDD:

Most comments were submitted in bulk and many come in batches with obviously incorrect information -- over 1,000,000 comments in July claimed to have a pornhub.com email address

然後機器人的 pattern 也很容易辨別:

Bot herders can be observed launching the bots -- there are submissions from people living in the state of "{STATE}" that happen minutes before a large number of comment submissions

這個有點類似「50 Cent Party (五毛黨)」,但是是自動化機器人,而且產出的「品質」不太好 XDDD

電信商對 Zero Rating 與網路中立性的問題

在「AT&T users will be able to stream DirecTV Now without using their data」這邊才看到 FCC 在這個月月初針對電信商對特定服務的 zero rating 發出警告:「The FCC tells AT&T it may be violating net neutrality with its DirecTV plans」:

AT&T is far from the only US carrier to zero rate data. T-Mobile has been ostentatiously offering free data for music and movies for a year now, and Verizon also zero rates video from its Go90 app. But in zero rating DirecTV, the FCC thinks AT&T may have gone too far.

AT&T 說任何人只要付錢都可以參加這個 plan:

AT&T’s argument is that any company that participates in its Sponsored Data program has to pay AT&T for it, and that includes DirecTV.

但問題還是在 AT&T 擁有 DirecTV,所以是左手付到右手:

Except, again, AT&T owns DirecTV, so even if one division is paying another, the overall company still ends up not paying any money.

而且這筆金額其實不小:

The situation for other companies is very different — and the FCC believes that the price they’d have to pay is “significant[.]”

不過總統快換人了,很有可能會往更糟的方向前進...

Netflix 與 Comcast 的恩怨

其實就是商業公司之間的勾心鬥角,在包裝後搬到檯面上 :p

Netflix 在美國固網裡吃的流量比 YouTube 還多,可想而知當然就變成各 ISP 找麻煩的對象...


出自 Sandvine 的「Global Internet Phenomena Report 2H 2013」。

Netflix 有多種方式將影片傳遞給使用者。除了早期自建機房外,後來跟不少 CDN 有業務往來 (包括了 AkamaiLimelightLevel3),另外也有 Netflix Open Connect Content Delivery Network 計畫,直接在 ISP 內部機房放設備提供服務。

使用 CDN 的作法成本太高,而 ISP 又不一定會接受 Open Connect 方案 (因為不一定收的到錢),在這種情況下,如果走 transit 線路的速度通常都不會太好。而 Netflix 與 Comcast 之間的狀況就是如此:

在付給 Comcast 錢後速度都都解決了...

除了付錢解決外,上個禮拜 Netflix 就丟出一篇說明的文章發難了:「The Case Against ISP Tolls」,這篇文章除了提到上面的事情外,另外還極力反對 Comcast 與 Time Warner Cable 的併購案 XDDD

然後最近又炒熱的網路中立問題,看起來也這件案子應該會很熱鬧 XDDD

歐洲議會通過網路中立條款

前幾天歐洲議會通過了網路中立條款:「European Parliament passes strong net neutrality law, along with major roaming reforms」,條文內容的 PDF 可以在這裡看到。

PDF 的左側是 Text proposed by the Commission,右側是 Amendment,可以看到「網路中立」被清楚定義:

The principle of "net neutrality" means that traffic should be treated equally, without discrimination, restriction or interference, independent of the sender, receiver, type, content, device, service or application

然後下面圍繞著網路中立的主題規範了許多電信服務提供商的行為,並且保障公民的上網權利。另外還要求各國的電信主管機關制定檢舉程序,讓公民可以很容易檢舉。

台灣 ISP 過濾限流的比率...

在「Is Your ISP Messing With BitTorrent Traffic? Find Out」這篇文章裡提到了 Measurement Lab 公開所蒐集到的資訊,列出全世界各 ISP 過濾限流的比率:「How neutral is the net?」。

台灣的部份抓出來如下:

由於不知道到底是怎麼計算,所以只有 ranking 的部份有意義,而且只能挑大的看 (其他樣本太少的無法判斷準確性)。

最大的當然還是 HiNet,比率是 13.2%,比起其他 ISP 低很多。這跟外面一般講「如果要跑 P2P 還是用 HiNet」的感覺接近。

Comcast 開始限制 Level3 的流量...

Slashdot 上的報導,Comcast 開始限制 (過濾) Level3 對 Comcast 的流量:「Level 3 Shaken Down By Comcast Over Video Streaming」。

另外 Level3 的新聞稿:「Level 3 Communications Issues Statement Concerning Comcast's Actions」以及 Comcast 的回應稿:「10 Facts About Peering, Comcast and Level 3」。

很擺明 Comcast 就是衝著 Level3 拿下 Netflix 的合約而來的 (參考「Netflix 拋棄 Akamai CDN,改以 Level 3 CDN 為主力」),在評論「Comcast Says Their Dispute With Level 3 Is "Not About Online Video" - Yeah Right」也是對 Comcast 的說法不以為然。

剛好在 12/21 FCC 才要對網路中立性投票:「FCC To Vote On Net Neutrality On December 21」,這則新聞看起來真是...