NetNeutrality - Deadline 4/22/18
I wanted to post a thread about this over in the Pub on AK, but I was afraid it might end up being categorized as politics as much as I really think it goes well beyond party lines. I decided to just make an account here, and have this be my first post.
I'm concerned for NetNeutrality. I don't think enough people are giving it thought. I think that with all the other political happenings going on, paired with the "promises" <backhanded wink.gif> of the ISP/Cellular providers that they will not mess with our internet experience, that many people are just blowing it off as unimportant, boring corporate banter.
For a quick refresher, NetNeutrality is the broad name given to a set of regulations put in place by the previous administration to ensure that all internet data traveling over networks in the US was to be treated equally with no preference or penalty imposed by any carrier. Internet/information access was considered to be a basic modern human right in the US, and was to be treated no differently than a utility, like lights or water. Two major events happened to prompt these regulations - Comcast denying their customers access to a service that competed directly with a service they provided, and AT&T throttling Unlimited Data plans.
But this concern goes beyond the somewhat real possibility that the ISPs may start to 'tier' internet access - similar to what we had in the 90s with AOL and Compuserve (base price to roam around their own services, but charged extra by the minute for access to the WorldWideWeb). I'm not even going to get into that right now, because that's the least of our worries.
The ISPs were handed a huge gift in December. The FCC approved the repeal of the NetNeutrality regulations - split 3-2 along Rep-Dem lines - to officially take effect on April 23, 2018. The ISPs claim those regulations were hindering investment in advancements in technology and connectivity for many rural areas in the US. And with those regulations removed, they could invest more into higher speed/capacity broadband and wireless access. Basically using the "but we're doing it for the people" marketing approach. <eyeroll.gif> You know as well as I do it's about the money - since when with corporations is it not about the money?
But without these regulations, this also gives these same companies complete control over our internet access. Again, beyond the ability to speed up and slow down our internet experience based on what content we're using, this also gives them the ability to filter out what they don't want us to see and push us toward stuff they would prefer us to see. There are countries in the world where this already happens - it's not called 'freedom' there.
When the kids from Parkland, FL used the power of the internet to organize a countrywide (if not global) protest in a matter of a few days, it didn't go unnoticed. The same with other social/online movements that have materialized in recent years - BlackLivesMatter, The Women's March, the MeToo movement. All of them depend on free, unrestricted access to the internet, and are successful in having their voices heard because of it.
With these regulations gone, and officially wiped from the books on April 23, what's to stop any particular organization from calling in a favor, and telling the ISPs, "Hey, we did you a solid back in December getting rid of those pesky regulations. What can you do to quell this unrest and/or negative press? Can you shut these people up?"
It'd be a lot harder to organize an online discussion, protest, or social movement if the ISPs were given the ability, and then the command, to filter it out. How does that sit within the bounds of the constitution?
Or, more directly...
Suppose you enjoy guns and the 2nd amendment, sharing forwarded emails about Libtards and Snowflakes with your friends, Fox News and Alex Jones. Now suppose your only choices for internet providers, including your current one, are more ideologically/politically left leaning. They could then decide to filter out access to your online recreational and news sites because they disagree with the content; then tell you if you don't like it, switch to a different company. And what if your only other choices are essentially the same choice? No amount of 2nd amendment is going to get your first amendment and unfiltered online access back. You've lost your voice beyond your immediate community.
If there's anything I've learned over the last 6 months or so, it's what Hurricane Maria taught me. Being without internet/communications for the first month and a half after she hit meant having no idea what was going on - locally or globally. It meant not having any idea if that other hurricane, Leo, which was directly behind Maria was headed for impact here too, and that I should prepare for another hit. It also meant having to take possibly life threatening chances in order to survive. There was no way to look up on the internet if drinking rainwater straight from the roof runoff was safe since water service also failed. There was no internet to let me know that if that same tank of water has been stored anywhere where animals are in the vicinity it MUST be boiled for at least five minutes to ensure that it kills the deadly leptospirosis bacteria that may have contaminated it - (and since there was also no electricity, that boiling had to be done on a makeshift fire in the backyard). All I had to go on was instinct, folklore from the few neighbors that were still around, and what little information was trickling through on that one AM radio station that managed to not go off the air - and even they didn't have access to communications/internet, so they were just as blind as we were.
As of this moment, it appears there's one outstanding vote needed in the senate to at least try starting the process of overruling the FCC's decision, keep NetNeutrality regulations in place, and things exactly as they are. But even then if it did pass, it would still have to pass the house, and then go to the WH for the final signature.
Access to information and freedom of speech, which we take so much for granted now in this modern connected world, hangs in the balance, and quite possibly the hands of people who don't have our best interests at heart.
I'm really concerned, because it doesn't look good.
Last edited by reydelaplaya; 04-10-2018 at 01:57 AM.
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