Action: FCC Calls for Public Input on Net Neutrality
For a while now, the FCC’s kept lines of communication open to the public’s opinion of Net neutrality. But on January 14th, they’re gonna close the lines and come to a decision soon.
Net neutrality? What’s that?
It’s the principle that the people who you buy your internet service from (Comcast, Cablevision, AT&T, etc. ) can’t stop you from doing what you do on the internet. It’s the idea that internet service providers can’t stop you from looking at whatever you like on the internet. In this way, all websites on the internet are “neutral” in that as long as you can type it in the search bar you can see any site you want on the internet. It sounds pretty good, no? Who wouldn’t be against that?
That would be Comcast, Cablevision, AT&T, and the 5 other internet service provider giants in the country. As it stands right now, what internet service providers (ISPs) can and can’t do is vague and undefined. This gives them a lot of power to change people’s internet experiences however they want. AT&T decided that censoring Skype was a good idea, so they did on their networks. Comcast didn’t like bittorrent for some reason, so bittorrent got banned too. While these are relatively minor parts of the internet they are cutting off, FCC Chairman Julius Genochowski is bringing down the thunder on this issue. He’s brought the vague and undefined role of ISPs into the public sphere, and now that he’s done that the FCC will have to clear up those roles soon. How the FCC will rule boils down to two options: 1) that the FCC has no role in protecting internet users from ISPs, or that the FCC will protect internet users from ISP censorship.
Net neutrality is really important for what we talk about here. We can’t change our culture without communicating to each other, and having our communications monitored and filtered by won’t allow us to take our culture back from corporate America. You, of course, could make the FCC think similarly. They are your servants, obviously. Here’s the link. Read up on the issue, go to the link, tell them what you think and click post. Remember, do it before January 14th. That’s when they close the section.
