“Come on! The internet is an incredible place!” said comedian and political commentator John Oliver, “And tonight, we need to talk about an issue that is impacting it.” He was just one of the many advocates of a free and open internet who were using the public forum to spread awareness on the threats that the internet is about to face. On May 18, 2017, the current Federal Communications Commission (FCC) led by Chairman Ajit Pai voted 2-1 on a motion to repeal rules and regulations put in place by his predecessor to ensure a free and open internet for all.
The motion, if sustained during a second vote held after the FCC is fully staffed later this year, would mean the repelation of the so-called net neutrality regulations that were put into place by retired FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to ensure that internet service providers like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon cannot discriminate against various types of internet traffic in a way that suits their businesses. This would give popular broadband companies and internet service providers greater monopoly in their services, allowing them to regulate and alter the people’s access to the internet in a way that suits their needs.
The question of net neutrality is a rather big one, and significantly more important than being able to decide what streaming service you want to use or what search engine you wish to access, though that alone should be incentive enough to speak up. If the proposal put forward by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai falls into place, it would allow internet service providers to block, throttle and fast-lane various parts of the internet at will, potentially regulating and censoring your entire web-surfing experience and forcing you to stick to the destinations that pay protection money to these cable and broadband companies. It would effectively lead to the monopolization of a free institution that since the 1980s has served as the freest and most democratic source of unbridled information.
It is only rarely that we get to see big corporations the likes of Google and Facebook take up the cause of ordinary citizens on a massive scale, but when we do, it is assured that the matter at hand is an important one. When it came to net neutrality, however, we saw our entire country, rich, poor, democrat, republican, independent and corporate, come together to support an idea that is necessary for the growth and prosperity of our data nation as a whole. That is because net neutrality is an idea that anyone can get behind, one that promotes free and equal access to information for every citizen of the country, and initiative that is not only desirable but also essential for the growth of our country and the entire world from an information perspective.
Thankfully for us, the fight isn’t over yet. A huge number of organizations, small and large, are coming together on July 12 to protest the current administration's blatant disregard of public opinion in their decision to break net neutrality, and it is the hope of these participants that, with the correct amount of attention, they can force the government to take notice regarding an issue that should clearly be independent and bipartisan, much like climate change and affordable healthcare.
If you or anyone you know considers themselves an informed citizen of the country and of the internet, one that is prepared to fight for its freedom and in turn, the freedom of the people, I request you to join now by signing up at this website to participate in the massive protest being held on July 12 to demonstrate our apartisan love for net neutrality and the principles that govern it. Remember, the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
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