It’s not hard to figure out why the big telecoms are opposed to the concept of net neutrality. If the idea were written into law, they would not be able to make billions of dollars in additional income.
They have several tools to try and block net neutrality in Congress, one of which involves creating and distributing ads lobbying for their point of view. Ads which are chock full of misinformation and outright lies.
If you don’t live in the DC area you’ve probably missed the television and radio commercials directed at the very small audience who will actually vote on this stuff. But there are also internet ads like this piece of crap.
Let’s start with the big claim, that anyone supporting net neutrality wants government control of the internet. No. What we want is for the telecoms to provide fast access at a fair price and then everybody get out of the way.
Neutrality means that everyone with access to the web has the same ability to use whatever resources are out there without the telecoms or the government discriminating on the type of content.
Another big lie made by the telecoms is that the content providers want access to “their lines” for free. That’s nonsense. Companies pay to make their content available, often big money to the same telecoms. And the more bandwidth they use, they more they pay.
So, now you have consumers paying at one end and content providers paying at the other end. What the communications companies want to do is charge additional bribes fees for content companies who want “premium” access (and their competitors slowed down or blocked altogether).
You can read more about the lobbying efforts by the telecoms and their “grassroots” campaign called Don’t Regulate the Net at MyDD. Also visit Public Knowledge, the EFF and other sites to keep up with the efforts to establish net neutrality as American law.
This an important issue for anyone who uses the internet but it’s especially vital to anyone who wants to be a part of creating web content without interference.
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