I have been on the fence about net neutrality for the past few months.
On one hand I dread the idea of giving the internet monopolies any more power.. As a former Time Warner customer I am well aware of their less than stellar service. My gut (and common sense) says they will do whatever they can to make more money. That's what they do.
If the US government has its way, American monopolies will be able to thrive, and the web as we know it will continue to grow more commercialized and more intrusive. It's the American way, after all.
But is this such a bad thing?
I read and article about China outlawing anonymous comments and it seemed so horrible.
I mean, How dare they censor free speech! =P
We should be able to say whatever we want whenever we want to. We should be able to put our entire lives online.....
I then read an article about Facebook's incredibly intrusive access into our lives which they have based a business model on.
It seems like we have two choices in today's Internet....
Ask the government to protect us, or willingly give our private information to corporations:
source: https://me.me/t/red-pill-and-blue-pill
But what does this have to do with net neutrality?
- Before there was Facebook, there was Internet
- Before there was online trolls, there was Internet
- Before there was online marketplaces, there was Internet
After millions of people are restricted from the internet due to throttling, site blocking, and exorbitant fees there will still be Internet.
The corporations can get greedy (and they likely will) but the diehards will remain. The hackers will build sites. The bloggers will still write. Sure, the days of Justin Bieber YouTube sensations, millionaire Upwork Freelancers, and Perez Hilton celebrity bloggers may go away... but who cares? The internet will diverge yet again into corporate and authentic, just as it has dark web verses search-friendly sites. Leave them to their Facebook, I'm getting lost in the web.
Because the Internet is too large to kill, and it is too big too harness..and too many have tasted its sweet nectar to allow anyone to hoard it for themselves.
I say we ride this one out...it was never a fair fight, but the righteous will prevail.