It's Time to Act on Net Neutrality

in #netneutrality7 years ago (edited)

Steemians, I am concerned.

Two days ago a vote was passed to repeal Net Neutrality Title II. As I see it, this is very bad.

As we all well know the internet represents one of the most profound advancements of humanity. With this simple innovation, people all over the world are now able to communicate with each other instantaneously. What makes this particularly revolutionary is that you don’t need immense power or money to do it: you need only an internet connection.

Through this technology, we have been able to advance culturally and intellectually in an absolutely unprecedented way. We live in the information age as they say. More than that, we live in the connected age. I can speak to you, your brother, the president of the United States, and a long lost relative in Kenya in an instant. This is terrific news.

Though with the repeal of Net Neutrality, all of that is in danger.

Net Neutrality prevents internet service providers from allocating more or less bandwidth to different websites and companies based on how much they’re paying. Whether it’s the behemoth of Google or the small website your aunt and uncle started to promote their china shop, they use the same bandwidth. Net Neutrality protects our freedom to use the internet equally.

But with the repeal of Title II, your ISP could create a ‘fast lane’ and a ‘slow lane’. ONe would presume that the big companies that can pay a lot would be in the fast lane. Your aunt and uncle? Well, their website may take longer to load. This may seem trivial but in this age of instant gratification, even 3 seconds can mean the difference between Joe Schmo discovering a beautiful new china shop or just taking his business to Wal Mart.

This also means that ISP’s could potentially throttle certain websites to make them even slower. While they assure us they wouldn’t do that, one has to wonder why they would fight so hard for the right if they don’t intend to exercise it. Not only that but with Comcast’s famously excruciating customer support, it’s not hard to be suspicious.

To recap: Net Neutrality Title II was just repealed, which could threaten the free and open internet that we’ve come to rely upon for our news, our entertainment, our organization, our steeming.

It is time to do something.

I don’t know the solution to this problem, and perhaps I’m overstating the threat. Though it certainly seems to me that the beauty of the internet has always been it’s freedom and wildness. The repeal of Net Neutrality feels like a fence has suddenly been erected. It’s only a matter of time before the walls start closing in.

If you too feel that this is a freedom worth fighting for, I urge you to visit https://www.battleforthenet.com/. There you can find out far more about what is happening than I know. As well, you can begin the process of calling your representatives in Congress and urge them to pass a “resolution of disapproval”, giving Net Neutrality a fighting chance. I’ll be calling them every day. I hope you will too.

As well, Steemit is a powerful platform, and this is an active and vibrant community. I believe it’s time we step out of the fringes of the internet and into the ring. Leveraging our power and community to fight for what’s right.

I don’t know exactly what that would look like or what we can do, but I do believe with cooperation and solidarity, we can make waves. We can inform the public of what's going on, and we can organize people to defend what's right.

So I pass the torch to you, Steemians.

What should we do to protect our freedom?

720px-Fist.svg.png
source

Sort:  

If you don't use the #earthnation tag @danno528 we can't upvote you.

Ohh! My bad. Fixing that now.

Decentralized meshnet infrastructure!

I'm intrigued. Tell me more

Here is an example.

Oh wow that is very cool! Some significant limitations but I'm tingling with the possibilities. It's like firechat basically but on a wider scale. This can be expounded upon and improved for sure. Thanks for bringing this into my awareness.

No problem man thank you. I took a look at yours as well and left you a comment. Some good thoughts

This post received a 83% upvote from @morwhale team thanks to @dakotakaiser! For more information, click here! , TeamMorocco! .
STEEM Price : 2.046

The @OriginalWorks bot has determined this post by @danno528 to be original material and upvoted(1.5%) it!

ezgif.com-resize.gif

To call @OriginalWorks, simply reply to any post with @originalworks or !originalworks in your message!

nice post theres a video i just watched about net neutrality

Oh damn that's a long one. But probably very work it I take it. I'll have to take a look later. Thanks for sharing

This post has received a 50.00 % upvote from @steemthat thanks to: @dakotakaiser. Thank you for your support.SteemThat.com

Congratulations @danno528! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :

Award for the number of comments
Award for the number of upvotes received

Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here

If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

By upvoting this notification, you can help all Steemit users. Learn how here!

Congratulations @danno528! You have received a personal award!

1 Year on Steemit
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.

Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:

Introducing SteemitBoard Ranking

Support SteemitBoard's project! Vote for its witness and get one more award!

Congratulations @danno528! You received a personal award!

Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 2 years!

You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking

Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!