Update: It sounds like we indeed are now in a bad position. According to Cory Doctorow, the FCC commissioners voted 3-2 along party lines to push forward Wheeler’s proposal of an “open Internet” for public comment. As there is already too much evidence of just how bad revolving doors can be in government, and once again a former cable lobbyist is raising more questions about his true intentions about an Internet that so many cherish. We have 120 days of comment period to be heard. EFF has a primer on how we should proceed to stop or change this pay-to-play roller coaster that will change how we all interact on the Internet.
We need to tell the FCC and Congress that the Internet should be classified as a Title II Telecommunications Service under the Communications Act. (read more on Arstechnica)
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People everywhere are talking about Net Neutrality. If you don’t know anything about it, then you should watch this explanation by Vi Hart:
Vi Hart nails it on the head with the reason why so many of us are beyond upset at the FCC’s potential (yeah right, try likely) move to create a slow lane and fast lane that makes us pay EVEN MORE to play on the Internet. It’s why you’re seeing that slow loading clip on so many sites. The FCC is planning to vote on the OPEN INTERNET rules today. We’ll find out what happens next. But read more about Net Neutrality on Mashable and BoingBoing and Techdirt and EFF (to name a few). It’s that important of a topic that will affect how so many of us live.
You can also Google (or DuckDuckGo, or whatever search engine you use) to find more – while the info is still easy to access and treated equally on the Internet as we know it.
I sent my feelings to the FCC and my representative already (and share them here):
Good afternoon. My name is Carolyn Brajkovich and I would like to submit my thoughts regarding an Open and Free Internet. Not free as in no cost, but free as an action that allows the continuation of creation and innovation that works outside of the constricted mentality of tunnel-visioned commercialism.
The Internet was created by the government as a way to continue to communicate should something catastrophic happen to this world. And it’s the people of this world that have breathed life into this technical construct until it became a lifeline to so many people around the world. It is so important that countries like Chile and Brazil have enshrined its protection legally above the economic rewards that drive so many national goverments’ views. Even the United Nations Special Rapporteur Frank La Rue stated in his May 2011 report that “Unlike any other medium, the Internet enables individuals to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds instantaneously and inexpensively across national borders. By vastly expanding the capacity of individuals to enjoy their right to freedom of opinion and expression, which is an “enabler” of other human rights, the Internet boosts economic, social and political development, and contributes to the progress of humankind as a whole”.
The FCC has chosen to speak about the Internet as though its only importance is centered around “commercial reasons”, which has rightly caused an uproar amongst citizens who value the Internet as a human right that stands for true freedom. I also feel that this is one of the most important topics that this and all governments around the world should be concentrating on, which is why I’m signing my name and choosing not be anonymous (though I feel that anonymity is another important strength of the Internet that allows open debate that can lead to strong solutions to many of our social problems). There are too many countries, including the United States, that see this technology as another realm to conquer and own. But in doing so, they ignore the true strength of the Internet which is its inability to be owned by any one person, because it is a shared and protected resource that we can all collaboratively work to grow and protect.
Building on antiquated laws that seek to segment the world into owned plots and segregated highways of information goes against everything that the 21st century and the future stands for. Our world has been catastrophically harmed because of our obsession with ownership, personal wealth, and power. By continuing to only allow those players who can play to mold the world, we are creating the massive inequalities that are now being spoken of in global economic circles and in such books as Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty.
It is time to at the very least pursue the protection of the Internet by reclassifying it as Title II Telecommunications Service under the Communications Act. The existing lobbies and corporations have gotten to their current positions primarily because they were once recipients of protective legal mechanisms which allowed them to grow. Without these same types of protections against corporate and monied interests, all Internet users will not enjoy the same freedoms that allowed us to create the fruits of our current Internet that these same lobbies and corporations can now use to grow their wealth and position. Without all of the people of the world collaborating to create content (yes, we are ALL content creators), the information and presentation that are utilized by everyone on this planet would not be present on the Internet. It’s time to recognize that a true free market requires that all players stand on equal footing and with the same rules, which means keeping Net Neutrality alive so that no company can claim privileges that eliminates the meaning of neutrality for all.
The Internet did not come about strictly because money created the infrastructure. The Internet became the necessary resource that empowers speech, creation, innovation, equality, and many other inspirations that were integral to the birth of our own country. It is time to clean up a legal system that creates loopholes that are exploited by the well-positioned few at the cost of the many. We have so little choice of services because of monopolies and huge innovation barriers brought about by legacy “providers”. The citizens do not have the same resources as corporations and lobby groups to fight legal battles that choose status quo, especially when laws are moving targets to be refined until their original meaning of protection has been lost.
We citizens already pay-to-play with the limited choices we are given to access the Internet. We citizens require a seat at the table for negotiations of everything that impacts our lives. With limited competition, decreasing innovation, and increasing regulations aimed at stopping freedom of speech, it is clear that legislation and commerce cannot and should not be relied upon in protecting a valuable resource such as the Internet. It is time to put the Internet on the protected list, much like an endangered species or a life necessity in the manner that food, water, air, and shelter are.
We have already seen the important role that the Internet has taken in the global efforts towards democracy, and as the mechanism to spread knowledge to any who can access it, and in the collaborative effort that allows innovation to help us step forward into the future. Net Neutrality should not be a question of viability, but a protective frame that places the Internet out of reach from myopic economic race that has us racing towards the edge of a cliff into oblivion.
Thanking you for hearing one more voice who wants to protect the Internet as a valuable resource that has changed the trajectory of mankind towards positive possibilities once more. Democracy demands that ALL people not only be heard, but respected equally. Democracy needs to be more than the empty word that it has become. The Internet can help this mission.
