Net Neutrality

This week some of the largest internet providers and activists in our country came to together to fight the FCC on many of their proposed changes to net neutrality. This is a huge deal! If we lose net neutrality, then the Internet that we know today will never be the same. With these changes, the Internet will be controlled by special interests groups that censor and control our access to open and free knowledge. Private companies will be able slow down access to certain sites based on the content and require people to pay extra money for access to certain areas of the web. There will be fast lanes and slow lanes and all of the content online will be throttled depending on what they want you to see. Certain ISPs would be slowing down access to political opinion pieces, blocking content from perceived competitors, only advertising for the biggest companies, and essentially granting more access to certain areas for some users while limiting access for others. Some affluent companies will be able to deliver information to targeted groups, while other smaller companies will lose all control. There will be an uneven playing field and will have a huge impact on Web 2.0 technologies. This is like something straight out of a George Orwell novel and I personally see it as an attack on the free press.

I was happy to see that Reddit posted a message on their home page to help inspire users to get involved in this fight. We do not want the government, special interest groups, and cable/internet companies controlling what we are able to see online and how we are able to access information. No one should be able to tread on our rights to communicate freely. I have a feeling that there is a lot of information out there that we are not privy to – these big companies have been meeting with politicians behind closed doors for years. This has me fired up, so I would really like to hear some of your thoughts and open up a discussion on this topic. What do you all think about this? What would be the impact of these new regulations on the Web 2.0 tools that we have come to know and love? Is the media exaggerating the impact of these new proposed changes? Are there any perceived benefits to relinquishing control of the Internet? I imagine that all social media networks will take a huge hit if these new regulations are passed through congress. What can we do as common citizens to help preserve net neutrality as we know it today? Does net neutrality even currently exist, or have we already missed the boat on this? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

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