Save Net Neutrality
Days after Doug Jones' victory-- our victory-- in Alabama, we've just taken a staggering blow. The FCC voted today, and net neutrality is dead. Or very nearly dead. By my understanding (I can't find much data on a quick search and frankly, I have more important concerns than the nitty-gritty details, but this is according to a very intelligent friend who I trust to know this), it still needs to get through the courts, and then it's onto Trump's desk, and I have no doubt that man will sign it. And I am shook.
My friends and I gathered around before class today, all outraged, all scared. It occurred to me that it would be legal for this blog to be effectively censored. (I have no delusions that this blog is on anyone's radar, at least anyone powerful enough to limit access to it, but the point remains that they could.) I do not know a single person who is happy about this. Even my classmates who support Trump are upset. The only people who will benefit from the end of net neutrality are big businesses.
Here's the thing-- the internet is important. As much as we like to gripe about how stupid it is, it's incredible the amount of information we can access in minutes, information we'd never be able to find otherwise. I can look up a language course right now and learn a foreign language, or learn about the universe, or the strangest things that have happened in history. Or news on the net neutrality vote. Through the internet, I can find protests for this so I can try to convince my parents to let me go to them. Information is so indescribably vital to a democratic society, and the freedom to access it was guaranteed in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
My biggest fear with the end of net neutrality, though, is what it could lead to. There was an excellent opinion piece in the New York Times outlining the possibility of censorship under the repeal of these laws, which expresses my fears much better than I can. This is unacceptable. We need free access to information, education, communication.
I beg of all of you, call the FCC. Email them. Raise up a storm they can't ignore. Post to social media. Go to protests if you can. Please, do whatever you are capable of. We need the free internet.
Here is a link to the official FCC contact page. I cannot stress enough how important it is that you support this. We must revive net neutrality. We absolutely must. I fear for our future if we don't.
My friends and I gathered around before class today, all outraged, all scared. It occurred to me that it would be legal for this blog to be effectively censored. (I have no delusions that this blog is on anyone's radar, at least anyone powerful enough to limit access to it, but the point remains that they could.) I do not know a single person who is happy about this. Even my classmates who support Trump are upset. The only people who will benefit from the end of net neutrality are big businesses.
Here's the thing-- the internet is important. As much as we like to gripe about how stupid it is, it's incredible the amount of information we can access in minutes, information we'd never be able to find otherwise. I can look up a language course right now and learn a foreign language, or learn about the universe, or the strangest things that have happened in history. Or news on the net neutrality vote. Through the internet, I can find protests for this so I can try to convince my parents to let me go to them. Information is so indescribably vital to a democratic society, and the freedom to access it was guaranteed in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
My biggest fear with the end of net neutrality, though, is what it could lead to. There was an excellent opinion piece in the New York Times outlining the possibility of censorship under the repeal of these laws, which expresses my fears much better than I can. This is unacceptable. We need free access to information, education, communication.
I beg of all of you, call the FCC. Email them. Raise up a storm they can't ignore. Post to social media. Go to protests if you can. Please, do whatever you are capable of. We need the free internet.
Here is a link to the official FCC contact page. I cannot stress enough how important it is that you support this. We must revive net neutrality. We absolutely must. I fear for our future if we don't.
Comments
Post a Comment