Better By Nightfall

I'm not sure if you're aware of the enormous issue at hand in our society today, mostly because our media fail to report stories regarding monumental changes to the telecommunication infrastructures (i.e. The Telecommunications Act of 1996). However, I urge you to invest some of your time in reading about the potential future of the Internet, the potential future of your voice and mine.

This is no joke. Congress is currently being lobbied by large communication conglomerates AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and BellSouth to allow for comprehensive telecommunication reform. They want to change the Internet as we know it, and they don't want you to be in on it. (In fact, they've been working on Congress and the FCC since 2002).

They want to turn the Internet into a "diversified" network. What they mean, simply, is that they want to tier the Internet and charge content providers for using "their pipes." If a content provider can't pay up, then their site will be cast to the side in the slow lane. Thus, network owners will become the ultimate decision makers for the content that is streamlined to you and the content that is not. It's contrary to how it operates right now where you, the consumer, decide what you want to see.

To add insult to injury, telephone and cable companies have set up special interest groups to confuse the populace on the issue. The groups espouse numerous claims. In particular they claim that:

• Net Neutrality is bad for consumers.
  
• Net Neutrality will cost consumers more.
  
• Silicon valley tech companies are behind the problem.
  
• Getting rid of Net Neutrality will increase innovation.
  
• Getting rid of Net Neutrality will not degrade Internet content.
  

The list goes on, but the truth remains obscured behind their rhetoric. They want to confuse you. They want you to stay out of the action. They want you to let their money decide the fate of the Internet, of your voice and mine.

We cannot let them do this. We cannot let them take away our only true democratic medium in American society. We must not support comprehensive telecommunication legislation. We must fight this.

Don't believe the lies. Fight for the Internet. Fight to protect our networks from those who claim them as their own. Fight to allow the continuation of our most powerful medium to remain in our hands. Fight for choice. Fight for your voice.


For more information check out the following websites:

• Google's Information Resource on Net Neutrality
  
• Save The Internet, the leading grassroots organization urging for Net Neutrality
  
• It's Our Net, a coalition of companies including Google, Amazon.com, Adobe, Yahoo!, and Skype.