Flying Under the Radar

It’s safe to say there is a lot going on in the world right now. From the Gaza Strip to the current crisis in Ukraine, people are dying and even more people are in danger every day that these conflicts grow. However while the big networks like CNN, Fox, and MSNBC continue to cover these big issues, something is flying under the radar. That something is “Net Neutrality”.

What is it and why should you care? Well, currently internet service providers cannot block or mess with any specific websites or information that you access through the internet. They are merely providers of the service and cannot determine how you use it. However with a recent court decision that stripped the FCC of its power to enforce this idea, companies may soon be able to alter, inhibit, and potentially outright block its customers from seeing specific things on the web. ISP’s could create a sort of internet highway for large corporations willing to pay massive fees to get their content out there and fast, and then the rest of the world, be it small start-ups, individuals, or interests that don’t benefit these large corporations, would be forced to drive through the middle of downtown New York when everyone gets off work. Now I've never experienced downtown New York, let alone at 5:00 pm, but I can hardly imagine it being fast and easy to drive through at that time.

Another thing that people may not realize, is that no matter where you live in America you really only have at most three choices for an internet provider. These companies aren't in competition with each other at all. With so few choices for ISP’s we've always sort of hung in the balance when it comes to fair internet.

Here's a great video that illustrates the problem most Americans face in regards to cable and internet service providers:

Now how is this whole Net Neutrality thing anywhere near as important as the Ukrainian Crisis or what’s going on in Gaza? Why is it even more important than what you’re going to do for dinner tonight? While these are three extremely important issues, without an open internet large corporations will have a tight grip over what we can access and view on the web. The internet is one of the greatest achievements of mankind and has done things most people don’t even realize. From helping Freedom Fighters organize and showcase the kinds of atrocities happening during the Arab Spring through Twitter and other social media, to Kickstarter campaigns helping start-ups get off the ground, letting you binge watch Netflix just to realize it’s 2:00 am and you have a project for work or school due the next day, to just letting people communicate with each other across the globe in an unprecedented and unthinkable way, the internet has done monumental amounts of good. This is why we cannot give up the right to a free and open internet that promotes innovation and the spread of ideas by handing it over to a handful of cable and internet conglomerates that only care about the bottom line.

So what can be done about it? Well besides all the normal stuff you hear about when a movement like this is started, write letters to your senators and representatives etc. Go to this website and they give you a whole bunch of ideas for what you can do http://www.savetheinternet.com/what-can-i-do . Even simply googling Net Neutrality and understanding more about it so that you can inform others is a great way to contribute. The most important thing is that you don’t do nothing, because if the only people against something are massive corporations with billionaire CEO’s then you can be damn sure it doesn't have the average person’s best interest in mind.

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