Net Neutrality: What it is, and why it’s critical.

The fight to protect Net Neutrality is the single most impactful news story that isn’t.

The long-term impact of a compromised Internet will be measured by historians of the future with the same scorn as book burning during the reformation, and mourned with as much sadness as the loss of the library of Alexandria. We are on the precipice of losing the most precious resource our species has ever created – global access to the entire spectrum of human knowledge.

Closing that box, sealing that tomb, cutting off that limb, is a tragedy I don’t want to see occur. Go to eff.org and fight for our future.

President Trump nominated Ajit Pai to be the head of the FCC, fairly explicitly, so that they could break the back of net neutrality. Ajit Pai, if you don’t know, is a former Verizon general counsel which means he is a bad guy.

He used to work for one of the major telecoms, and while there, was tasked with snapping the spine of net neutrality so that companies like Verizon, Time Warner (now Spectrum, whatever the hell you want to call them), can be the ones that control how data flows on the Internet.

Their logic is this: they built the highway, so they want to be able to put up their own toll booths, and they want to be able to create whatever traffic jams they want to, so that content from companies like Netflix, which don’t play by their rules will get throttled. But this isn’t really accurate.

The digital superhighway that we all enjoy was built on the shoulders of giants. It was built in conjunction with lots of government help, grants, loans, public domain inventions, DARPA initiatives and so much more. The internet wasn’t built by Verizon alone, for the enjoyment of only Verizon’s customers. It’s a utility that is enjoyed by all.

If you like listening to music on Spotify – an independent company, if you like watching original content on Netflix – (neither of which are produced by AOL Time Warner), well you better get used to watching it really grainy or paying extra for the privilege to your ISP.

If you let net neutrality go away, the Internet gets broken, and it may get broken irrevocably.

A Neutral Internet is Critical

I don’t want to be one of those people that has to tell my grandchildren, “I remember when the Internet was awesome!” No sir, I think we all want to make sure that our content stays free, that it flows smoothly, and that whatever we want to see, hear or read about, at the bandwidth speeds we’re paying for, we actually get.

Go to eff.org, savetheinternet.com, battleforthenet.com and let your voice be heard. Call your congressman, fill out the form on the FCC website, voice a complaint.

Fight for Internet freedom. It’s critical.

The talking point that the bad guys have come up with saying, “do you want the government to control the Internet?” is bullshit. Net Neutrality is exactly the opposite of government control or regulation. Net neutrality guarantees that no one controls the Internet. That’s why we have the regulations in place, which are there to ensure that if you’ve got bandwidth, you’ve got bandwidth and you can go where you want on the web. Free of persecution, overt spying (that you don’t opt into by ignoring Terms and Conditions from various web cookies, but that’s a whole different story).

How You Can Fight for a Neutral Internet

This is really, really, important to be able to do. Once net neutrality goes away, Verizon, Spectrum, whoever you get out there – they’re going to be able to determine how fast you get to where you get on the Web and whether you can get there at all. If you want to go to Netflix, you’ll have to pay an extra $20 a month or something like that to these creeps. Or then,  eventually, they’ll just block access to it altogether. It’s not ok. It’s not acceptable.

Fight for Internet freedom. eff.org is the place to go.

Let your voice be heard, and don’t give up.