I don’t know about you, but I certainly love being able to do and watch whatever I want on the internet.
Unfortunately, in light of the current administration, our net neutrality laws are in danger. For those who don’t know, net neutrality provides laws in which large companies like verizon and comcast can’t manipulate the media content we see. For example, let’s say a new show comes out that is backed by comcast, the net neutrality laws ensure that verizon can’t slow down the speed of that program or force consumers to pay for the program. Without these laws in place, they can manipulate what you are able to watch and further grow their own revenue.
Net neutrality isn’t just about being able to conveniently surf the web, or watch what you want, it’s also a major issue for web personalities and content creators across the country. If a company disagrees with a creator’s content, or decides their content is not profitable, they can make that content harder or even impossible to access. This puts the careers of creators and media industry employees in great risk. If they can’t get views, they can’t make money. If they can’t make money, they need to move to another profession.
The Federal Communication Commission responsible for regulating these mediums, is running under the supervision of Ajit Pai. Known widely as a deregulation supporter, Pai insists that changing the current state of net neutrality will not impact the current systems. He proposes a certain “honor code” rather than hard laws. Many officials under the current administration are pushing to unravel these open internet laws, and votes are planned to take place before the end of the year.
While the talk about destroying net neutrality is mostly promoted in terms of its projected infrastructure growth, many companies have openly stated or implied that these laws are no hinderance to their growth ability.
Many entertainers and internet creators have been asking their followers and fans to help support net neutrality and insure the internet stays as free and open as it is today. Most recently, Rhett and Link from the YouTube channel “Good Mythical Morning” have enlisted the help of their viewers. They suggest viewers take the effort they would spend voting for them to win the Streamy Awards to express their support of net neutrality to the FCC instead.
I don’t know about you, but I like my internet the way it is. If you’d like to share your thoughts with the FCC, click on the link below.
Happy surfing!
