By: Selina Tropiano
Today, we won’t be watching a foreign film. Instead, we’ll
be talking about something much more important: Net Neutrality.
Undoubtedly, by now, you’ve heard plenty about this issue. In
fact, you might be getting incredibly sick of it. I get that. Never-the-less, I
hope you read on anyway.
For those of you who don’t know, the FCC repealed net
neutrality mid-day yesterday. It was an appalling bit of news that made the
rounds and filled a lot of people with dread. But why? What’s the big deal
about net neutrality anyway?
Clearly, I could go into how a lack of net neutrality would
affect Trust the Dice. I could remind you that we’re a small blog that doesn’t
take money from directors or producers in order to review their films. Even
though we work through the use of Netflix, we’re in no way considered to be
representatives of them and we’re certainly not sponsored by them. A lack of
net neutrality could easily mean that we would be required to pay a lot more
than what we spend on our domain.
Quite frankly, even with ads, we don’t make enough money for
that. Pretty much every cent that we’ve made through Trust the Dice gets pumped
right back into the blog.
If the above scenario happened, we would likely cease to
exist. Along with the majority of other small blogs that you follow, and
possibly some of the bigger ones.
That’s not the problem, though.
Admittedly, it’s easy to focus on the part that could affect
my site… but there’s a much bigger issue at stake.
A lack of net neutrality turns the internet into a space
that’s ‘pay-to-win.’ Until now, it’s been a space dominated by freedom of
speech, but people could easily use this new ‘pay-to-win’ system to shut down
anyone that disagrees with them.
I will give you an example.
One of my articles greatly angered someone involved in a
project I was talking about. Since then, they’ve located my phone number and
made it their mission to prank call me – and have their friends prank call me –
numerous times a day from many different numbers. This has been going on for
nearly a year and a half now.
Clearly, that’s a really childish way to react to a bad review…
but without net neutrality, it gets worse. The person involved has more money
than I do, that’s just a matter of fact. They could easily pay to have this
blog, or any of my social media sites, shut down or slowed to a crawl.
Money speaks in this new internet world.
My example above is just a small way that a lack of net
neutrality could affect our freedom of speech. Have a complaint about the
president or his enemies? Too bad. Get into an argument with a politician? Good
luck signing on tomorrow. Leave a bad review on Rotten Tomatoes? Post something
negative about a fast food restaurant? Call out an insurance company on
Twitter? Anyone, at any time, including trolls, could pay to have your internet
experience destroyed.
It is the first dent in attempting to break through our
freedom of speech. It doesn’t demolish it, but it sets a very bad precedent.
One that could be used to further prevent the population from speaking up.
That is why the FCC vote fills people with dread.
Luckily, the fight is NOT over.
The people who made this decision, would prefer if we all
thought this was the end. The repeal passed, so all is lost. Except, it’s not.
The repeal doesn’t actually go into effect immediately. Before
that can happen, it has to hit the Federal register, which will open it to the
possibility of lawsuits. Already, many states in the U.S. have expressed an
interest in suing the FCC over their decision. Among them are: New York,
California, and Washington.
That means we’re not alone. Some of the state governments
have been listening, and there are those among them willing to fight alongside,
and for, their people.
Don’t be fooled, either, when the FCC comes out in a month
and starts pointing out that the internet hasn’t gone ‘pay-to-win’ yet. It can’t
actually happen that quickly. The rules have to go through all kinds of steps
before they can be activated… and that could take many months. The repeal could
be tied up in those aforementioned lawsuits for even longer than that.
We cannot be tricked by the greed of the FCC and their lobbyists,
because we know we can still help.
Unfortunately, politicians seem to be among our only hope.
That might not fill you with confidence, and I don’t blame you, because it
doesn’t do much for me either.
You have to speak to your congressman. You have to urge them
to understand that this is not an issue that can be swept under the rug. This
is not a small freedom that you will allow the internet-version of Martin
Shkreli to rip away from you.
2018 is an election year. Politicians, especially right now,
want to come out for the people in order to remain popular enough to win their
respective elections. We, the people, need to make it more expensive for them
to ignore us than to listen. Which means every single person with an opinion on
the subject needs to act.
It’s difficult to believe that we can make a difference.
Each one of us is just one. One person versus the entire United States government
can be a frightening thought. That’s why we need to rely on each other right
now.
This vote passed because of how divided we are. Democrats
can’t trust Republicans, Republicans can’t trust Democrats. Everyone’s either
racists or a snowflake. We’re all libtards or cold-hearted freaks. Politics has
forced us to our respective corners and we’re all too wrapped up in it all to
walk into the middle of the room and see that things are being done without our
input because we’re allowing it. Because we’re too divided to agree on
anything.
Regardless of what side of politics you’re on; regardless of
your race, creed, sexuality, or station in life… this subject affects you. If
you’re rich, there’s always going to be someone richer. If you’re a Republican
and you want to say something negative about Hilary Clinton, you could be shut
down just as quickly as a Democrat saying something negative about Trump.
This should be the line we draw in the sand. This should be
our hill to die on. Because this isn’t about whether or not you’re going to get
to watch Netflix or play World of Warcraft. It’s not even about whether or not
you’ll be able to continue keeping in touch with your Uncle that moved to
Australia. It’s about a civil right being slowly sliced away from you. And THAT
is not ok.
Call your congressman. Tell them this IS the issue for this
election.
Be outraged. Be active. Be loud.
Or be silenced.
It’s your call.
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