A&E
The future of Internet freedom is in your hands
AFH PHOTO//LANVY TRAN
The year is 20XX. Our Internet addiction has skyrocketed in the years since its conception. However, the web we once held dear has been perverted into something else—something darker. The combined knowledge of the human race was once a click away, but now things have changed.
You are divided by what ISP (Internet service provider) you have—Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner—but its really they who have you. Your ISP is your home, your friend, your own personal tyrant. You see what they want you to see, consume the media they want you to consume, know what they want you to know.
You are divided by what ISP (Internet service provider) you have—Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner—but its really they who have you. Your ISP is your home, your friend, your own personal tyrant. You see what they want you to see, consume the media they want you to consume, know what they want you to know.
You are nothing but a serial number and a dollar sign. Your freedoms are held at the price of paid “fast lane” services. Fast lanes slowed access to certain websites in favor of others. Digital companies were forced to play ball with the warring ISPs or fade from digital existence.
There were casualties. Those unable or unwilling to pay for a fast lane were outperformed by corporations large enough to pay up. Competition is dead—either you pay or you lose.
Who could have caused such a travesty, such a monumental crippling of free expression? Well, it was the politicians who got in bed with the corporations they were supposed to defend the common man from. They allowed our freedom to be murdered at the hands of massive ISPs. This might sound like a cheesy, low-budget sci-fi movie, but it is an all-too-real future. There is a war going on, children: the war for net neutrality.
Net neutrality is the idea that ISPs and governments regulating the Internet should treat all data equally. In other words, they cannot discriminate or charge differentially by user, content, website, platform, application, type of attached equipment or mode of communication. It is what prevents ISPs from deciding what websites you can access and the speed you can access them at. It is what allows us to communicate and share ideas freely on what should be an open network. It is the ultimate example of free speech.
It sounds like a no-brainer, but net neutrality has been on the Congress floor for some time. In 2015, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) classified broadband Internet access as a “Title II” communication. Under strict Title II regulations, ISPs were effectively blocked from interfering with web traffic. Now the FCC, led by former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai, would like to reclassify broadband Internet as a weakly-regulated Title I “information service.”
If we lose this war, the Internet as we know it will cease to exist. The voices of millions will be silenced by corporations who could not care less about our rights, just our cash. For younger generations, the Internet has been a resource, teacher and friend. Do you want be the generation that allowed the Internet to die? If not, call your local representative—in our case, that’s Joe Kennedy III—and urge them to stand up for Internet freedom.
Representative Joseph Kennedy III, House Committee on Energy and Commerce: 202-225-5931