Net Neutrality: Why You Should Contact Your Senators
If you loaded this page without unusual lag or delay, there’s a reason for it. It’s called Net Neutrality; and if the Senate does away with it, there goes your ability to read articles like this on small websites across the World Wide Web.
Since the invention of the internet, every content provider has been treated equally. No publisher, game or website receives any preference when it comes to the speed of their site. Whether you run the website for the New York Times, or you run a website for your local bait and tackle shop, ISPs provide the same level of service to you and your readers. Whether you have a big voice or a small voice, people can access your information with equal ease. In other words, the net is neutral when it comes to content.
But that will all change if Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) and his ilk have their way. Big Telecom and cable companies want to set up a tiered system under which publishers who pay the most are essentially allowed to cruise in the HOV lane, while the rest of us are bogged down in stop-and-go traffic. Under their scheme, big websites like, say, Ebay, would be able to pay for easy access to its materials, while ensuring slower service for smaller sites everywhere. (Not that Ebay wants to pay these higher prices, of course.)
What it Means
The consequences of ending Net Neutrality are staggering.
Right now, on the internet, content is king. If you want visitors to your website, if you want customers for your business, you can put up a page and provide content that will make viewers flock to you. If you have something worthwhile to offer, you’ve got a fair shot to make a name for yourself.
This equal playing field has allowed democratic and capitalist values to flourish.
Yes, there’s a lot of trash on the internet. But for every worthless website, there’s another that has invigorated political participation, pushed alternative sources of investigative journalism into the public sphere, or sparked an explosion of entrepreneurial growth.
After all, we live in an era when media conglomeration has concentrated mainstream publications into the hands of just a few corporations, limiting the number of voices in the marketplace of ideas, and trashing years worth of anti-trust law. The internet has been the one positive, and countervailing force.
Why It’s Important
In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that the internet was entitled to the highest level of protection under the First Amendment because it is a unique medium-with a low barrier to entry. It also concluded that the internet is the most participatory form of mass communication yet developed.
The court further extolled the virtues of the internet, saying, “Through the use of chat rooms, any person with a phone line can become a town crier with a voice that resonates farther than it could from any soapbox. Through the use of Web pages, mail exploders, and newsgroups, the same individual can become a pamphleteer.”
The anti-net-neutrality bills that lobbyists are pushing for will put and end to those virtues, and drive a stake into the heart of the internet as we know it.
Without the outcry of average citizens, the politicians are likely to do what they have historically done-take the money and do the bidding of the telecom and cable lobbyists.
Remember, that the internet was developed with tax-payer dollars-your money and mine. That everybody gets an equal chance to profit from it is only fair. So it’s time to pick up a phone or write a letter. Net Neutrality is a vital national interest.
It matters. It’s not that complicated. And you should contact your Senator.
