Surely by now if you spend any time on the World Wide Web, you must have heard of something called “Net Neutrality” or the more ominous phrase “Save Net Neutrality”. But perhaps you think of yourself as “not particularly politically minded” and didn’t pay much attention to it. Perhaps you do know what it is, but are not really sure how it can impact you or the people and services you know in your life. So here’s a handy dandy blog post about technology and equality, two subjects (amongst others) that I study extensively. If you’re wondering what Net Neutrality is and like a bit of comedy, here’s a clip from John Oliver’s show that explains it. If you’re a visual learner, here’s a handy dandy Imugr image that explains why keeping Net Neutrality is important. But if you prefer to keep reading….
What is Net Neutrality? As explained by Freepress, it is the basic principle that prohibits internet service providers (Comcast, Timewarner, etc) from speeding up, slowing down, or blocking any content, applications or websites. Net Neutrality, a rule formally adopted by the Federal Communications Commision in 2015, preserves our right to communicate freely online.
In the 21st century with so much of our lives relying on the internet, I would say Net Neutrality becomes a cornerstone of our democracy. Almost a helpful expanding clause on our First Amendment: you get to have an opinion and state it on the internet without your internet provider controlling how quickly it is streamed or if it should be blocked completely!
Net Neutrality is the most American thing there could be!
So what happens when Net Neutrality is thrown out? Well for starters, this is what Internet packages may start to look like:
You may be forced to choose a limited internet package (especially if you are low income!). And let me tell you, as someone who’s lived in countries where the internet is censored by the government, having access to a limited internet is not fun!
Secondly, if you are a small business owner (as the majority of sex workers are!), you are forced to have an additional business expense. Many businesses (including sex workers) rely on creating content that you are interested in. It brings more clients, and more business! Sex workers create clips, often have websites that showcase their photographs, and sell products on their own stores. They do all of this as independent business owners and Net Neutrality allows them the guarantee that their customers would have the same access to their sites, as they would have to Netflix for instance, which is a leading internet television network! Were Net Neutrality to go out the door, a corporation like Netflix can buy their way to the top of the internet stream, and ensure that their data is coming to your homes with no problems. A small business owner will not have that kind of buying power.
Net Neutrality helps business owners, some of whom are your favorite sex workers! So if you want to ensure that your favorite sex worker stays in the business and keeps creating the kind of erotic content that you love, support Net Neutrality!
So how do you do that? Two ways:
1) There’s the tried and true method of calling up your representative and letting them know that it is important to you that Net Neutrality stays in place! (Btw, if you’re wondering, calling them is better than emailing them, as they then really have to jot down your concerns rather than looking for your email in the spam folder)
2) Go to gofccyourself.com and leave a comment! Click on “+Express” (it’s next to “New Filing). When you come to the new page, ensure that the Proceedings box says “17-108”. I chose the Name of Filter as: Net Neutrality.
And ba-da-bing-ba-da-boom! You’ve done your duty as a citizen!
Next time I will talk about how doing away with Net Neutrality also hurts low-income America and mires them deeper in poverty. Stay tuned!
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