Steemians, I am concerned.
Two days ago a vote was passed to repeal Net Neutrality Title II. As I see it, this is very bad.
As we all well know the internet represents one of the most profound advancements of humanity. With this simple innovation, people all over the world are now able to communicate with each other instantaneously. What makes this particularly revolutionary is that you don’t need immense power or money to do it: you need only an internet connection.
Through this technology, we have been able to advance culturally and intellectually in an absolutely unprecedented way. We live in the information age as they say. More than that, we live in the connected age. I can speak to you, your brother, the president of the United States, and a long lost relative in Kenya in an instant. This is terrific news.
Though with the repeal of Net Neutrality, all of that is in danger.
Net Neutrality prevents internet service providers from allocating more or less bandwidth to different websites and companies based on how much they’re paying. Whether it’s the behemoth of Google or the small website your aunt and uncle started to promote their china shop, they use the same bandwidth. Net Neutrality protects our freedom to use the internet equally.
But with the repeal of Title II, your ISP could create a ‘fast lane’ and a ‘slow lane’. ONe would presume that the big companies that can pay a lot would be in the fast lane. Your aunt and uncle? Well, their website may take longer to load. This may seem trivial but in this age of instant gratification, even 3 seconds can mean the difference between Joe Schmo discovering a beautiful new china shop or just taking his business to Wal Mart.
This also means that ISP’s could potentially throttle certain websites to make them even slower. While they assure us they wouldn’t do that, one has to wonder why they would fight so hard for the right if they don’t intend to exercise it. Not only that but with Comcast’s famously excruciating customer support, it’s not hard to be suspicious.
To recap: Net Neutrality Title II was just repealed, which could threaten the free and open internet that we’ve come to rely upon for our news, our entertainment, our organization, our steeming.
It is time to do something.
I don’t know the solution to this problem, and perhaps I’m overstating the threat. Though it certainly seems to me that the beauty of the internet has always been it’s freedom and wildness. The repeal of Net Neutrality feels like a fence has suddenly been erected. It’s only a matter of time before the walls start closing in.
If you too feel that this is a freedom worth fighting for, I urge you to visit https://www.battleforthenet.com/. There you can find out far more about what is happening than I know. As well, you can begin the process of calling your representatives in Congress and urge them to pass a “resolution of disapproval”, giving Net Neutrality a fighting chance. I’ll be calling them every day. I hope you will too.
As well, Steemit is a powerful platform, and this is an active and vibrant community. I believe it’s time we step out of the fringes of the internet and into the ring. Leveraging our power and community to fight for what’s right.
I don’t know exactly what that would look like or what we can do, but I do believe with cooperation and solidarity, we can make waves. We can inform the public of what's going on, and we can organize people to defend what's right.
So I pass the torch to you, Steemians.
What should we do to protect our freedom?
