Net Neutrality Victory

We won a victory over the telecommunications giants in the latest battle over Net Neutrality recently.

Note the key word is “battle.”

Our victory came in the form of court decision from the US Court of Appeals in Washington DC. They ruled (correctly) in a 2-1 decision that the Internet is a utility and not a luxury.

What does this mean?

It means that the telecom giants can not charge web-site operators in order to have their site content stream and load faster on an person's computer.

The telecom giants want to be able to charge sites a fee in order to have their content load faster. They also want to play digital censor – they want to be able to decide for themselves what content to load fast and what to basically block.

So, Verizon or AT&T could load Amazon faster and slow down YouTube to the point of not being usable.

Or they could load corporate news fast and basically block FreeSpeech TV, Link TV, Telemundo, or the Socialist Action web-site.

This is wrong and the court properly decided that all content is equal and that the telecom giants could not charge more for speed. They had to treat all content the same.

They also determined that the Internet is a necessity and not a luxury. Consider the number of jobs and careers that are dependent upon the Internet.

And consider what would happen to the economy if Internet access was restricted.

Now, on the correct side of history are capitalist organizations that I do not particularly like. And I shall not name them to avoid giving them free advertising. But also organizations like the Internet Archive and other sites that give us access to great information that help us make our lives better.

So, right now we won this battle.

The telecoms have promised to take this fight to the Supreme Court.

Let's meet them there, dusted off and ready to let the door hit them where (the deity of your choice or evolution) split them and keep the Internet free and open to all.