YouTube and Netflix ‘throttled’ by US carriers, research finds

A selection of Netflix Inc. original content sits displayed in the Netflix app on an Apple Inc. iPad tablet device in this arranged photograph in London, U.K., on Monday, Aug. 20, 2018. The NYSE FANG+ Index is an equal-dollar weighted index designed to represent a segment of the technology and consumer discretionary sectors consisting of highly-traded growth stocks of technology and tech-enabled companies. Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg

The largest US telecom companies are slowing Internet traffic to and from popular apps like YouTube and Netflix, according to new research from Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. 

The researchers used a smartphone app called Wehe, downloaded by about 100,000 consumers, to monitor which mobile services are being throttled when and by whom, in what likely is the single largest running study of its kind.