EU Wants Online Streaming to Slow Down During Coronavirus Crisis

As workers around the world are forced to stay at home due to the coronavirus crisis, the amount of data pumping through the internet is expected to take a sharp jump. To avoid a slowdown in online traffic, the European Union wants Netflix and other streaming services to cut back. According to a TechCrunch report, published this week, Europe wants video streamers to ditch high-definition and go back to standard def. How the changes, if they are put into effect, would affect porn sites—for whom video streaming is the bedrock of their business—was not entirely clear. But according to figures published by Statista, 4 percent of all web sites are devoted to porn, and 13 percent of desktop searches—and 20 percent of mobile platform searches—target porn content. The figures are substantial, but not as high as a 40 percent figure that was widely circulated in the early days of the ‘net. “The internet might have been a dirtier place in the 1990,” Statsita wrote. “In those days, it had limited services and a limited user base.” As a result, a 40 percent figure representing porn’s share of the online space was ikely more accurate, researchers say. With countries around the world actively looking to ban or strictly regulate online porn, the danger remains that Europe and other governments could use heightened bandwidth needs during the coronavirus shutdown as a pretext for blocking or throttling porn sites.  If that were ever to take place, a phone call between European Commissioner Thierry Breton and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings this week may go down as the first step. In that call, Breton says he told Hastings that the internet infrastructure could find itself under “strain” as increased numbers of workers log on from home. As a result, he said, he asked Hastings to switch Netflix to a lower-bandwidth SD stream, from its usual HD. The switch may only apply during peak times and in the regions most affected by increased internet usage, which would allow the streaming platform to continue “offering the best service to users and consumers, with no disruption,” while also preserving telecommunications infrastructure, according to the TechCrunch report. According to TechCrunch, however, Netflix had not yet responded to the proposal. Photo By Wadzifox / Wikimedia Commons