This week, the free and open Internet millions of Americans have come to depend on is under attack.
In a procedural move, Senate Republicans are trying to overturn the rules that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) put in place late last year to help protect net neutrality -- the simple idea that all content and applications on the Internet should be treated the same, regardless of who owns the content or the website. The House already pushed through this dangerous legislation, which would effectively turn control of the Internet over to a handful of very powerful corporations.
I sincerely hope the Senate doesn't follow suit, and I'm doing everything I can to make sure this terrible legislation never reaches the President's desk.
While millions of Americans have become familiar with the concept of net neutrality, it's important that we're all on the same page. Net neutrality isn't a government takeover of the Internet, as many of my Republican colleagues have alleged. It isn't even a change from what we have now. Net neutrality has been in place since the very beginning of the Internet.
This isn't a radical concept -- it's what each and every one of us experiences every time we use the Internet. Right now, an e-mail from a friend arrives in your inbox just as quickly and reliably as an advertisement from Amazon.com. Consumers can go online and make a reservation at a small fishing lodge in Ely, Minnesota just as quickly as they can at the Hilton.
But many Republicans want to change that so that the large corporations they represent can increase their profit margins at the expense of small businesses and consumers.
To illustrate why net neutrality is so critical to innovation on the web, I like to tell the story of a small online startup that launched in 2005 above a pizzeria in San Francisco. It had a product that now seems simple: it allowed people to upload videos so others could stream them. It was called YouTube -- you may have heard of it.
At the time, Google had a similar product -- Google Video -- but it wasn't as easy to use, so consumers took their business to YouTube. The site took off and, less than two years after it launched, YouTube was purchased by Google for $1.6 billion. Not a bad payday.
But it wouldn't have been possible without net neutrality. If Google had been able to pay Comcast and other large Internet service providers to prioritize its data -- and make YouTube's videos load more slowly -- YouTube wouldn't have stood a chance. Google's inferior product would have won.
Last year, the FCC took action to protect net neutrality, establishing a set of rules designed to preserve the status quo -- the rules under which YouTube and thousands of other start-ups flourished. While those rules didn't do nearly as much as I would have liked to protect consumers, encourage innovation, and keep the Internet fully free, they at least laid a foundation to preserve the basic principles of net neutrality.
These are the rules Republicans in the House have already voted to overturn. This week, my Republican colleagues in the Senate will attempt to short circuit the legislative process by forcing a procedural vote and ignoring the FCC's expertise on this issue. They hope to abolish net neutrality and give their supporters in big telecom what they want: an unfair advantage over small businesses and bigger profits at the expense of consumers.
I've said that net neutrality is the most important free speech issue of our time. It's true. If Republicans have their way, large corporations won't just have the loudest voices in the room. They'll be able to effectively silence everyone else.
Every small business they'd prefer not to compete with. Every blogger who publishes something they don't like.
We have to stop them.
I like to think of this new possible protocol as Citizens Band Digital. If you truly do support Net Neutrality and are a US citizen then please sign my petition http://wh.gov/Dlx
Net neutrailitÂy means that data packets are moved through the network all with an identical priority without regard to sender, recipient, or content. PERIOD.
DO NOT LET ANYONE CONFUSE YOU.
Net neutrality only involves government in so far as government sets the rules for companies to follow as they participate in the internet with their hardware and electricity, etc. The rule in question that is called "net neutrality" only means that network providers can't manipulate the flow of data based on who the sender is, the recipient is, or what the content is. That Is All. There is no conspiracy, no power-grab by government.
THE POWER GRAB WOULD HAPPEN IF WE WERE TO LOSE Net Neutrality!
Right now before we loss control of this issue it is your responsibility as an American to flood the phone lines to you congressmen to tell them again "hand off the internet". Supersized Corporations are afraid of the internet for the very season that they can't hide any longer. "Occupy the phone lines"
Start here ....
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
If your emailing your congressmen add the link to this story, and remind them to read the comments. They need to know they have nowhere to hide now.
Right now before we loss control of this issue it is your responsibility as an American to flood the phone lines to you congressmen to tell them again "hand off the internet". Wall Street is afraid of the internet for the very season that they can't hide any longer. "Occupy the phone lines"
Start here ....and start now!
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
Remeber, today real American Citizens are at war with those on Wall Street who would take your rights as an American away from you. Hey ..... and their doing a bang-up job of it right now!
Net Neutrality has NOTHING TO DO with the government EXCEPT that we need the government to protect our rights instead of selling them out to big business.
Your statement, "I certainly believe that unchecked, corporatioÂns will stifle everything that doesn't fit their greed model" tells me you are inherently on the correct side. Now TELL THE SENATE AND PRESIDENT to protect net neutrality and DO NOT permit ANY changes as the Republicans in the House suggest.
...There is NOT "government involvement" any more than simply keeping the Big Boys from running over us with their Mega Corproations. HOWEVER that running over us can only happen if "government" - in this case meaning the legislative brance and presidency - create a law that lets the Big Boys run us over. Got It Now? I sure hope so!
I believe your fears are well founded that Obama will not protect us with the veto.
Someone has confused you. No, that's not what net neutrality is at all.
Net neutraility means that data packets are moved through the network all with an identical priority without regard to sender, recipient, or content. PERIOD.
Net neutrailitÂy means that data packets are moved through the network all with an identical priority without regard to sender, recipient, or content. PERIOD.
If there WERE censorship, then please explain how that would work, specifically?
Everything you are saying is fear mongering propaganda and this "small government" montra that's just silly. We need protection FROM big business, and that's the ONLY role for government here, and they've been doing This Exact Form Of Protection Of Our Rights from "day 1" of the internet.
How is that "government run internet"?
And the beat goes on... It is just another way that some in power are intent on undermining our democracy.