Thursday, May 15, 2014

Disaster

The Bell Tolls: The three Democrats on the FCC have voted to neuter the Internet by letting Internet Service Providers (for which read ATT, Comcast, etc) sell preferred, faster and more reliable delivery to big money users (which means they will in turn charge you more to use their sites and services) while shunting the little people, like me, to a slow and bumpy second (or third or fourth) class future. They call this Net Neutrality. In a similar vein, Comcast announced plans to put data caps on all users and charging progressively higher rates to those who actually want to use the Internet. Source
I don't understand all I know about this. What I do know is this issue has stirred up a firestorm among a lot of people who understand it a lot better than do I. This much is clear to me: big guys with money are going to be able to buy greater internet privileges than the 99 percent. So what else is really new? Is not this the way things work in this country? What this represents, however, is an inroad into a business that has been relatively "free" since its inception. It's one of the last bastions of the American economy that is not controlled completely by the corporate plutocracy. It's a disaster.

(And don't forget: the federal judiciary is what began this assault on net neutrality. Some judge found the current FCC rules unconstitutional. Wonder who he belongs to? Whose pocket he's in?)

2 comments:

Montag said...

Big business does not have a right to control of the Internet. It is their money and lobbying that buys the right for them from a complacent and ignorant government and bureaucracy.

Unknown said...

I don't think the government is so much complacent as it is owned. The very idea that the Democratic party will be party (excuse the pun) to handing the Net over to their corporate overlords . . . well, it's the way now in America, no?