Net Neutrality is So Gay

AT&T, Verizon, and other big telecommunications companies are busy trying to set up a road block on your information super highway.

And, as usual, they are using doublespeak to confuse the issue.

According to SavetheInternet.com, Network Neutrality — or "Net Neutrality" for short — is the "guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet.

"Put simply, Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination."

Unfortunately, to ensure that big companies like Verizon and AT&T do not interfere with your access to information on the web, Congress must pass legislation to create regulations preventing them from doing so.

As you can imagine, the Internet offers an opportunity for these huge corporations to make even more money. They see the Internet for its profit making potential and thus want to dominate and limit competition. It is in the best interest of AT&T and Verizon to to prevent Congress from regulating the Internet and they are using their power and money to influence policy makers and public opinion.

In other words, they are muddying the waters with misinformation.

Do a Google search of the words "Net Neutrality."

At the top of the search string you will see links to two web sites - both appearing to support Internet freedom.

One of the sites is called "Save the Internet" and the other, "Hands Off the Internet."

"Save the Internet" believes "that the Internet is a crucial engine for economic growth and free speech. We are working together to urge Congress to preserve Network Neutrality, the First Amendment of the Internet, which ensures that the Internet remains open to new ideas, innovation and progress." In other words -- Congress should regulate the Internet to ensure that everyone has equal power and access.

"Hands Off the Internet" believes "that the best way to avoid burdensome and unnecessary regulation and mandates is by ensuring that market forces deliver the benefits that only fair competition can bring to the American consumer - maximum choice in supplier, content and technology." In other words, Congress should NOT regulate the Internet and should leave it up to "free market forces" to ensure that big corporations can use their money and power to do what they wish.

Under the Bush regime, deregulation of industry and trade policy has been expanded. That is why we have seen an increase in mine disasters, a crumbling infrastructure, poisoned and faulty imported foods and goods, a sub-prime mortgage default crisis, and then some.

Congress began regulating business for a reason: big companies care about profits, not people.

Government is supposed to care about people, not profits.

It all started on a Saturday afternoon, March 25, 1911, when five hundred employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City were literally locked in to the building and a fire broke out. The women could not escape through the locked doors and so they were forced to choose between burning or jumping to their certain deaths. Many chose the latter.

The fire lasted only eighteen minutes, and killed 146 workers, most of them Jewish and Italian teenaged girls.

The tragedy pushed politicians to accept a new notion of the responsibilities of government --ultimately resulting in the passage of thirty-six new labor laws, an Industrial code, and an industrial safety model.

As soon as the government began to regulate industry to protect American citizens, corporations started fighting back.

And thus the "libertarian," free market misinformation campaign was born.

In order to make my point about government regulation, I just Googled "Triangle Shirt Factory fire" and found a number of information sites. And right now I know I could access just about anything I wanted to know, online, in seconds.

Net Neutrality