[Chapter-delegates] Major news errors on ISOC home page

[Dave Burstein]

Andrew -
I cc'd you because you know this data and can act on expert knowledge. I'm
cc'ing Dan because I know he has been working on the website.

Folks

I'm writing up the possibilities of working from home breaking the
Internet, on which there is already a fair amount of data widely available.
Nearly all the data and expert opinion - I'll post in a little bit - is
that most broadband landlines networks are having minimal trouble and that
will likely continue. I have quotes from 5 experts but am still looking for
data. (I have less data on wireless. Wireless with inadequate towers and
backhaul - India, Africa - may be challenged. I'm optimistic about wireless
networks in countries with good landlines but that's unclear so far.)

But our homepage news currently writes
In Britain, broadband networks aren’t ready for millions of people working
from home, ABC14News.com reports. Many home-based Internet services in the
U.K. still use old copper-based networks, and Internet users should expect
congestion.

Not merely is this wrong - copper-based DSL networks are generally
non-blocking by design - but this is what I found about the source.
ABC14News.com - NewsGuardwww.newsguardtech.com › uploads › 2020/01 ›
ABC14News-Label

It is unclear who owns the ABC 14 News website, although it appears to be
part of a larger collection of fake news sites, including CBS15.com,
NBC9News.com,.
--------------

We also have "Millions of people potentially working from home in the
coming weeks could literally “break the Internet,” Slate reports" Actually,
if you read the Slate article, rather than just the clickbait headline, the
inference is that the Internet as a whole, is likely to do just fine. (VPNs
and some websites, perhaps not.)
-----------------
In addition, our David Belson writes, sensibly
Many are wondering if the Internet can handle the strain of rapid traffic
growth and increased latency. Will it cause a catastrophic failure of the
Internet? The answer: not likely.
https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2020/02/is-the-internet-resilient-enough-to-withstand-coronavirus/
-------------------------------
If we want to be trusted, I think we should have a policy of not printing
any technical conclusion without someone technical having reviewed it. I
quickly found several other insupportable claims.

Especially since our CEO happens to be a respected expert on Internet
traffic. Anything he can't answer personally, he and many others know who
to ask. Experts like Jason Livingood and Dave Farber have recently been
ISOC board members.

(I see some other issues which I will forward privately when I have more
time.)
Dave


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