Net Neutrality remains integral to the internet we know and love today. The fair and equal access to content of all different styles and purposes is what makes the internet, well, the internet. Sadly, this freedom was voted to be taken away by the FCC a few months ago. The greedy corporations looking to capitalize on the change won out. Luckily, there’s still hope! A recent development regarding net neutrality came about a few days ago, and I thought I would dedicate this week’s post to it. It may be one of our last hopes when it comes to saving and restoring this key component of the internet we love.
Recap
After the initial vote, net neutrality as a whole largely fell out of the public eye. It was extremely popular for about a second, then quickly faded after being repealed. So for those of you who forgot, or maybe never heard about it at all, what exactly is net neutrality? Well, essentially, it's the principal that internet providers should treat all data in the web the same. This means that websites who don't have the means to pay large sums of money won't have their content buried behind slow loading times. Every website, regardless of how much they pay, gets free and equal access.
Why exactly does this matter? Well, without net neutrality, internet providers like Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, and Spectrum can slow down speeds to website that don't pay them. That means valuable information (especially information on the environment!) can be lost entirely. Non-profit organizations that rely on their websites to draw attention, and don't have the money to pay the big companies, will have a much harder time creating outreach within their community. To offset the added costs companies will have to pay to get normal speeds, they may start charging US more too.
What's Happening Now?
Net Neutrality is gone. While it hasn't been formally removed yet, the FCC voted back in December of 2017 (in a three-to-two vote) to remove these rules. And recently, they have announced that the free-internet rules will be removed formally on June 11. Nonetheless, we have reason to hope, as various senators (chief among them being Senator Ed Markey) have forced a vote within the senate to repeal the removal of net neutrality (to take place sometime next week). Based on the numbers of supporters and non-supporters within the senate currently, the repeal is likely to pass.
However, there would be two steps that would have to take place after that in order for it to go through officially: a vote in the house of representatives, and then a "yes" or "no" from Donald Trump. Unfortunately, it's not expected to pass through either of these steps, due to the republican controlled nature of the House of Representatives, and the support Trump previously expressed for the repeal. However, that is certainly not reason to give up hope.
What can we do?
So, if it isn't looking that great, what can we do to help? Well:
Contact your representatives- let them know your opinion! They're the ones who are supposed to be representing US, and they can't do that unless they know what you think. And if they know what you think, and still don't act on that, then we know they're not fit for office. You can contact your representatives by clicking here or by using the Countable App, which I talked about here.
Attend a protest- on May 14th, there will be protests all around the country in support of the Net Neutrality regulations. Click here to see if there will be a protest near you.
Go Red
One final way we can help to save net neutrality is by spreading the word about it. Fight For the Future's "Go Red" campaign was created in order to create interest around the upcoming senate vote. Using the site's banners on websites of your own, as well as posting it on social media and sending it to your friends and family can help spread the word and get other people invested in this as well. Click here to be taken to there website where you can find more information and get their pre-made banners.
And if it doesn't work?
But what happens if the vote doesn't pass? What if we lose net neutrality for good? Well, there are a few vital next steps that should be taken. The war won't be lost if we lose net neutrality, we just need to fight a little bit harder. First, take note of what your senators and representatives do. Are they in favor of net neutrality, and are voting to preserve it, or do they want it to be taken away? If you don't know, click here to be taken to the Battle for the Net website, where you can see a list of representatives and their stances on the issue. If you find that your representative isn't voting for what you want to see, then don't vote for them in the upcoming primaries in November. Those who can vote must show their representatives that they won't tolerate decisions that don't support the American people.
And secondly, we have to call out companies that take advantage of the new system. It's inevitable that this will happen, some internet providers have already stated the changes that they will make, and some internet providers ALREADY violate net neutrality, even before the changes have taken place. OONI, part of the Tor Project, is an app that helps to catch violations in net neutrality and other kinds of internet censorship. Downloading the app on your phone can help inform you of the real atrocities these companies are committing, and work to call them out for it to ensure they can't happen again.
Conclusion
So, there is still reason to have hope when it comes to net neutrality. We've lost a few battles, that's for sure, but there are still opportunities to stop this. And even if we don't, even if the changes can't be stopped, we can use the information gathered from this change to influence who we choose to put in office in the future. After all, this future is ours to make. Even if it's one without net neutrality, even if there's no internet freedom at all, we have to keep fighting, fighting for what we believe to be right. We have a responsibility to react to these injustices, and fight against them with all we've got. Because if we don't fight this now, then what's stopping them from taking away our other freedoms?
All credit for information used in this post goes to:
https://www.countable.us/
Images:
http://www.districtdispatch.org/2018/05/may-9-internet-red-alert-net-neutrality/
http://famososartistas.com/2018/05/11/the-fcc-just-gave-net-neutrality-a-final-date/
http://www.gpsta.co.uk/about/about/equal-access/index.php
http://www.gsmnation.com/blog/2012/11/16/meet-your-next-wireless-carrier-google/
http://www.fanphobia.net/profiles/ed-markey/ed-markey-at-us-senate/
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-trouble-with-teleprompter-trumps-state-of-the-union/
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/countable
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/net-neutrality-how-open-internet-activists-won-big-n313406
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/12/14/net-neutrality-fight-not-over-groups-launch-internet-wide-campaign-pushing-congress
https://www.battleforthenet.com/
https://www.redeszone.net/2014/06/04/lucha-contra-la-censura-en-la-red-con-el-proyecto-ooni/
https://humanityworldorder.wordpress.com/2015/06/01/freedom-fighting/
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