The False Choice of Indiscriminate Blocking: Why Technical Precision is the New Standard for an Open Internet

Fastly challenges the outdated notion that infrastructure providers must choose between passivity and indiscriminate IP blocking, arguing instead for a nuanced approach to digital governance that protects intellectual property while maintaining an open internet. By leveraging self-service Edge Computing and operating at the Application Layer, Fastly offers precise traffic management, allowing for the identification and blocking of bad actors without affecting legitimate users. This granular control enables the protection of content, like live sports events, from piracy, thus preserving economic interests and ensuring a secure internet. Fastly emphasizes that a truly open internet requires accountability and transparency, advocating for proactive engineering and close customer partnerships to balance security with openness, and rejecting the false dichotomy between censorship and chaos.