The Grim Reality Without Net Neutrality

It must come out directly and be said in the most direct and blunt way possible.

Net Neutrality must not be allowed to be repealed, as it’s our essential lifeline in order to maintain our freedoms to access the internet how we want/when we want. The editors and staff here at the Johnny Green announce our fullest support and have made efforts to attempt to retain the ruling by the Obama Administration. This is not partisan issue, the internet is a platform and a tool for which industry and business can grow in an even playing field.

I’ve leaned away from opinion articles, and tried to focus on creating hard news content and being a fair editor that wants people to be able to post what they want. Even with this, we’ve come to the realization that platforms, such as this one, may not be able to exist any longer. We’re aware that many people may not be paying much attention to this platform. To most we’re just a homepage at the library that you click off of to go somewhere else.  

But this isn’t about opinion pieces, this is about the reality in which we’ll potentially be facing tomorrow.

If Net Neutrality is repealed, the dangerous precedent for corporate censorship and control of what content can be seen. If Comcast or Spectrum, for example, don’t like the content that is being produced from a site, they have full control to throttle the connection or outright block something permanently or lock it behind a paywall. Underneath our current doctrine, this would be illegal, and all internet providers are required to allow access to all content online fair and equal. That means things like Netflix, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and everything from explicit content to evangelical sites are in jeopardy of being blocked or censored.

On top of that, it legalizes internet providers to sell your browser history and data you accessed. Many people seem to not understand that deleting your history gets rid of this threat. When you access a site, that data it sent to your ISP and stored in data banks. With this information, they can essentially create a profile of you and your habits, and allow government, and other corporations to know your every move or action.

If this is sounding more like an Orwellian novel as this goes on, it should.

Ajit Pai and the FCC are threatening to dismantle the value of the internet. They cannot control something that is designed in such a way that it’s not supposed to be regulated by business or government entities. It’s a unanimous conglomeration of people sharing different ideas, values, information, and hardships. The internet gives people an essential to make their voice heard in such a way that has never been seen in human history. An open platform that allows for all of this cannot be regulated in such a way that cable companies control television. There is zero evidence suggesting that the repeal of Net Neutrality would help consumer businesses or help the U.S grow economically.

We have one day — one day, before the vote. If you still support a free internet for all people, please be sure to follow the link I’ve provided. Only together we can stop the FCC.

https://www.battleforthenet.com/