Today the FCC is set to pass new internet rules, prompting critics like Al Franken to warn it could enable ‘political censorship.’ President Obama once championed true net neutrality, but his administration is praising the FCC’s new proposal. So what changed? Could it be Wikileaks, perhaps?
President Obama was supposed to be our first internet president. Sure, he famously refused to ditch his Blackberry on inauguration becoming the first prez with a smartphone (every president through George W. eschewed sending emails personally since it was viewed as a security risk), but today Obama’s administration is ready to praise the FCC’s proposal for net neutrality that would actually make the internet decidedly un-neutral.
As Huffington Post points out Obama once promised to “take a back seat to no one in my commitment to Net Neutrality.” However, the FCC’s proposed internet rules boast two gaping, giant obstacles to neutrality: First, it would allow the telecom companies to block any apps and services they want from the mobile internet (except ones that compete with their services, because that would qualify as anti-trust behavior). Second, for the non-mobile web, it would allow telecoms to charge sites a fee for decent load times, relegating non-paying sites to ‘slow lanes’ which would make it harder for readers to access them. Both are serious blows to the whole idea of “neutrality.”
So what happened? Why is the idea of preserving true net neutrality, which was once a major priority for the Obama Administration, being dialed back?
One clue may come via Al Franken, a detractor of the FCC’s proposal. As reported by New York Times, Al Franken recently gave a speech on the Senate floor, in which he said:
“If corporations are allowed to prioritize content on the Internet, or they are allowed to block applications you access on your iPhone, there is nothing to prevent those same corporations from censoring political speech.”
Bingo. President Obama was widely reported to be “furious” about WikiLeaks’ latest embarrassing revelations, and everyone from Attorney General Eric Holder to Sen. Joe Liebermann scrambled to try to find a way to shut down WikiLeaks without violating that pesky First Amendment or appearing to engage in the kind of all-out political censorship practiced in China.
Regulating the internet is veiled as a win for consumers. President Obama’s CTO praised the FCC’s new internet rules as an “important step in preventing abuses and continuing to advance the Internet as an engine of productivity growth and innovation.” This kind of “regulation is for your own good” attitude sounds terrifyingly like China’s approach to regulating its currency and political climate.
It could be that Eric Holder and Joe Liebermann (and apparently Obama himself, although he seems to be keeping a low profile about it) have found their answer to WikiLeaks. What’s the best way to control the internet and prevent gaffes like WikiLeaks from seeping into the public? Call it “net neutrality” and tell people it’s for their own good.
It’s an Orwellian and—you’ve got to hand it to them—brilliant strategy. The big question is whether the public will be wise enough to see through the scheme and revolt to prevent the new rules from taking hold. A truly free internet has been the single most important democratizing and globalizing force in the 21st century. There’s a reason why oligarchies like Iran and China have created systems to control what’s visible to their citizens online. If oligarchies like America follow suit, we will inevitably come to resemble those societies we outwardly criticize. This will be a failure of freedom, since in the 21st century it’s become clear that true freedom equals people sharing ideas, not governments metering out people’s ability to communicate.
Al Franken is right. The FCC’s proposed net neutrality is the most important free speech issue of our time. Over two million people have joined an initiative to “Save The Internet.” Check it out, and be prepared to raise your voice when the FCC passes the new rules—which it inevitably will—for net neutrality. The new rules will not be for your own good, no matter what they say. Trust us. Or trust Al Franken. But don’t be duped.
December 21, 2010 at 7:58 pm, gorak said:
Just wait until all those pesky conservative sites get their traffic slowed.
December 21, 2010 at 8:22 pm, T.Office said:
So, we'll all just resort to print media again. What a novel idea.
December 22, 2010 at 8:42 pm, myself said:
All I have to say about this is that in the end, the beauty of the internet is how utterly difficult it is to disrupt communications between determined parties. While this will certainly make it harder for those not looking for such information, I say gl hf trying to stop those with some tech savvy and determination, such as has been the case with wikileaks which now has hundreds of mirrors, has survived multiple attacks, corporate and otherwise.
December 28, 2010 at 2:55 pm, Apple Sued Over Privacy: Anticipating the Next WikiLeak | Death and Taxes said:
[...] sure, but the allegation raises serious questions about the nature of mobile internet and makes the FCC’s half-assed Net Neutrality proposal even scarier. As Al Franken said: “If corporations are allowed to prioritize content on the [...]
January 03, 2011 at 10:31 pm, Keith R Radford Jr said:
The General that I signed papers with told me he spent years in prison before he was
exonerated by the courts. I had a major player in this tell me that I would quit likely die
and would have to be replaced during the effort which would lock the door to the process.
Well I am still here. I got the process by the short hairs and I will never let go. It’s not
in my nature to give in. I know what they did and it’s not ok with me or anybody else. Most
people never have too think about this stuff and largely goes unnoticed by most, but if
people have someone that is a chip on the table and allot of money too make on the play, the
guns come out. I am calling you a cheat and a lie. I am the twice chipped guy.
Sex should have no age of consent and people need desperately too get the who~scow out of
our lives with laws like this. “O don't stop reading just yet, bobo. No law concerning sex
should be allowed too continue. We have women that bury their kids in the back yard and say
three black guys took them, wall them up or put them in basements because they look like
their fathers, get their other siblings too have sex with them and then have them
incarcerated because they don't want to pay to feed them, murder and rape and point fingers
at others and use what they do to harm others. Any debate on the subject is worthless and no
age should be set for any sex at all. If we put everyone in jail for having sex we would
have no money left for anything. Sex is the not an issue for anyone when we have people with
both sexes sporting both parts. We have some really broken minds and judgmental laws that do
nothing for anyone except the people that get rich from these laws. Doctors want only
professionals too touch children at $90.00 an office visit, Lawyers get to chase skirts
instead of ambulances and the clergy get their choice of the new parishioner. Police get too
do cavity searches in privite and rich people pay other people to watch their own children
shower. These laws boil down to the same grotesque social design that was used by the third
rite that devastated Europe. It is all fake and worthless at the core, to design a social
structure on a system that allows such activity, which is what this Which Hunt has shown.
Our government can not sustain the cost and the truth be told was a plan used to undermine
the structure of the US by laws coming from the legatus. The point that I am trying too make
here is that sex is not murder. The connection made through law is not a valid connection
and this has been know for thousands of years but since the different lands with different
languages and the boarders between those lands have served the jetSeters and the powerful
but will never serve the regulars, poor or anyone at the grass root and as long as were
being poisoned, our water being poisoned, our minds being poisoned to the point that some
would rant up a sweet over touching one another, something wrong.
These are laws that serve economic instability, waste millions and create places where if
Adam Walsh's kid is still alive, which I think he is, can hide from family by having a few
teeth removed and put in the head of another? Who was the other kid? Don't you think someone
would come forward, Like “Adam” and clear the air about such a horrendous development? What
did you do to Adam Mr. Walsh if you are in fact still alive?
The General that I signed papers with told me he spent years in prison before he was
exonerated by the courts and suggested I do the same. I had a major player in this tell me
that I would quit likely die and would have to be replaced during the effort which would
lock the door to the process. Well I am still here and by the looks of it the door is still
open with this judgment,,,huh?. I got the process by the short hairs and I will never let
go. It’s not in my nature to give in. I know what they did and it’s not ok with me or
anybody else if they knew the truth of it. Fact is that the wrong has been done and all they
have to do at this point is tell the truth, but they can't so the truth will catch up with
them. Most people never have too think about this stuff and largely goes unnoticed by most,
but if people have someone that is a chip on the table and allot of money too make on the
play, the guns come out. I was told once that the Medical industry is one of the largest
industry's in the US, tied to everything, and steeped in law. I am calling you a cheat and a
lie. I am the twice chipped guy. My name is Keith Richard Radford Jr. I was chipped as a
child without my consent, chipped again as an adult as an alternative too civil commitment
many years ago and yes it is very upsetting to know that this was all planed before I was
born so as you can see I am not apposed to these laws for no reason.
See Eric Holder used to live across the street on 18th street in LA and was a court
reporter. His name then was D. Harmon and his brother Charlie, Mark, and sister Jane we the
Tuesday night location for bible study. The Beverly Hills congregation and the Yucca Valley
congregation both have information. These are people that believe in an end game. Start a
scandal, use microchips, I am not making this up. You want this? You don't know what you
want do you? Have you seen the numbers of people that actually view and follow the posts
about sex offenders? the same people follow this information and the numbers are very small
just like their minds.
February 17, 2011 at 10:14 am, Anonymous said:
“O” AL i got a lot more so thanks for the update on the seatbelt thing BUtt: you gota admit you just might drive more careful if there were no seat belt and has anyone looked at the injuries that are inured by air bags?
October 22, 2011 at 1:50 pm, Keith_R_Radford_Jr said:
“O” look at me, I can shock this pice of meat and make it move. At least that was the call to doctors in the 1800 for extended funding of project, much like the lying trash that use our tax dollars everyday like Tom Harkin who would have us believe that the no child :Left Behind started in 2002 but truth be known it started in the mid 70′s as a pilot program in LA. I really am tired of these lies told by Roman Catholic law makers using fear and loathing of one another to rule and tear down people at a level against the 99% to fund their lives, hobbies, experiments, lies at our expense. Chumps want us all to fear god while they play God Screw you! Grassley, Reid, someones got to tell the dirty Debs that sex is not murder and necessary for the species of mankind to servive on our planet.
Any questions you can call me any time at 818 627.8060 and we need donations at digital.media.solutions@gmail.com We are planing another American road trip and we may be in your town, so let us know if you have an interview we need to conduct concerning the subject ASAP