The Fate of the Internet will be voted on THIS TUESDAY. Have you done your part?
Net neutrality is complicated. At the core, though, is the question of whether the Internet will remain a level playing field. Millions of Americans depend on the Internet to express themselves, here on DailyKos, on YouTube, even on sites like Facebook and Twitter.
President Obama campaigned on the promise of Net Neutrality, but the rules that FCC Chairman Genachowski has proposed are not full Net Neutrality. Skype, Consumer Reports, Amazon, Credo, Netflix and Free Press agree that the proposed net neutrality rules are too weak to support.
Why?
- Under the Genachowski proposal, cell carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile could legally block their customers from getting to DailyKos. More likely, they would block their customers from getting to Netflix, or Skype. Again, this would be legal; nobody to appeal to.
- Under the Genachowski proposal, any Internet Service Provider (cable company, cell phone company, satellite, whatever) can take money from websites and give them a "fast lane." Imagine you start a new photo-sharing site to compete with Flickr, but Flickr has paid millions of dollars so that their photos load twice as fast. Imagine that Comcast, which sells cable television service, slows competitor Netflix down so much that it's unusable. Again, perfectly legal.
If you want to see what the world looks like with weak net neutrality, look no further than the leaked documents published yesterday on Wired. Get ready to pay a different rate for each and every web page you access. It sounds like science fiction, but Wired obtained proof that the plans are already being made.
If all this tech mumbo jumbo is over your head, it's still pretty easy to figure out that Net Neutrality is the way to go. On one side you have Netflix, Skype, Google, Amazon, President Obama, and the ACLU. On the other side, you have Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, and Glenn Beck.
What can you do today, in 30 seconds, to protect the Open Internet? Tell President Obama to make sure that the FCC (which has a 3-2 Democratic majority) passes strong rules that protect all Americans from Internet discrimination. The open nature of the Internet is what has made it such a success, and so different from the rest of the media where only the voices of the rich and powerful can be heard. If preserving this is important to you, take 30 seconds out of your day to let yourself be heard.