Net Neutral Burger

Confused about what "Net Neutrality" even means?  Or why it's important to You?

Burger King (brilliantly) explains:

This is important stuff people!  Go bug your government about it, huh?

Find your Representative HERE.
Find your Senator HERE.

Please Call Your Representatives (Again)

Well, they're trying to mess up the internet again.

The FCC plans to change the rules that keep the internet neutral, to let your internet provider or ISP:

1) Charge you more for faster service.  (Meaning poorer or thriftier people get crummier service.  

ADDENDUM: Oops! they do this already, when your service slows after you reach your phone's data cap.  I miss-typed.  But what may now happen is a sort of airline-ification of your internet service... Want streaming?  Extra.  Want access to the cloud?  Extra?  Want knees or oxygen with that?  You get the idea.  Oh, did you want You Tube with your internet?)

What's for sure is that ISPs will:

2)  Charge businesses, websites, and streaming services etc. more to reach you.  (Meaning poorer, newer, start-up, and niche guys can't compete with richer, more established, mainstream ones.  That favorite viral video not on Netflix?  That weird genre comic?  That unpopular opinion?  Sloooooow to loooooad.)

3)  "Fast" and "slow" lanes (AKA decent versus crummy service) add up to de facto censorship.  

Not political censorship necessarily, but, for instance, you might have a bad connection when ordering pizza from Dominos... and a strangely good connection to Pizza Hut.  So you'll start ordering more Pizza Hut.  If your internet provider just happens to get kickbacks from them...?  Pure coincidence!

That's the obviously profitable commercial censorship, that profit motives will determine what you can or cannot see online.  But with all these dark money PACs around it's only a matter of time (think seconds) before some ISP is paid to speed up one political party's ads or trash talk.  Heck, if a Koch Brother or a Soros own a big percent of an internet corp. they might even tilt that scale for free.  Your news and then your political and social views will be warped by what Big Internet Brother wants you to see.

Scary.

The internet is the conduit through which most of our lives now travel - do we want a filter to collect more money for our ISPs clogging it up?  

Polluting it?

So.

Call your representatives in Congress.  Explain this stupidity to them!  Because your protest is the only thing possibly stopping this.  You got less than two days.

Internet "Fast Lanes"

Also mean "Slow Lanes."

This blog would probably neeeeeveeeer load.

Before the FCC sells the internet to the highest bidders, let your senator and representative know you don't want that.  

What we need is Net Neutrality.  It increases competition, it's fair, it's democratic.

Speak Up!

You can read more HERE.

If you're not worried about keeping the internet democratic - keeping it open to new voices, unpopular opinions, and innovation - you should be.

The "fast lane" idea that Big Business is pushing, the idea of charging tolls to get information to you (on your machine through services you pay for) means that Little Guys will be seated at the back of the info-bus.  This blog, for instance, will be walking behind the bus and will take FOREVER to load.  So will the plucky start-up company's website, your family photos, or the whistle-blower's blog.  These modest sources seem just as important to me as getting reruns of Lost, but wealthy sites like Big Media's will load in a flash because they can afford to pay for special treatment.

Special treatment because of wealth is becoming THE problem in American democracy.

The internet is - today - one of the few places where people outside of wealth and power can have an equal voice.  Let's keep it that way!

Today is your last chance to let the FCC know what you think of Big Biz buying the internet.
Comment to the FCC HERE.

UPDATE: at 12:30pm  The FCC have gotten so many comments that their website has crashed!  Good going!  If you haven't weighed in yet, be sure to try back again later.

UPDATE #2: on 7/16/14  Because of the site crash due to lotso comments, the deadline for comments has been extended.  Now's your chance to ask for a Fair and Neutral 'Net!

Net Neutrality

Here's the best (and prettiest) explanation I've found of why keeping the internet neutral is so important, a comic created by Michael Goodwin at Economix Comix with a very clear discussion.  HERE.

And the best part?

Comic by Michael Goodwin - found at BoingBoing

Please let the FCC know that not only would you like your Netflix films to stream properly, but you also think your internet provider should not be able to slow - or censor - your on-line access to LOLcats or political speech or free religious association or, you know, all that First Amendment stuff...

The Fourth of July was only a couple days ago.  Remember?  The internet means more than music videos just like the 4th's freedom means more than annual hot dogs on the grill.

Give the FCC your opinion HERE.  (Net neutrality is proceeding 14-28, right at the top of the list.)

Only a few days left.