A key battle for Net Neutrality

Today, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) placed a fake banner block on their site to call attention to their ongoing effort to defend Net Neutrality in light of efforts by Internet Service Providers to pressure the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) into allowing ISPs to filter the Internet as they see fit – and thus controlling what people can see, hear, and say.

Thanks to this nudge, I wrote a note to the FCC via the EFF’s form letter contact page. Here’s what I said:

Today, the Internet is the primary home of our Global Commons. The freedom and neutrality of the platform must be maintained because of the enormous value of an even playing field.

The United States tends to set digital precedents for the world. A staunch defense of human freedoms on the Internet will help shape a positive future for the world’s culture.

However, if we allow network operators to legally manipulate our access to the Global Commons, many avenues for abuse will be opened up. Providers have extremely strong incentives to push as hard as they possibly can to gain this power because it will garner them vast wealth and cultural influence. They will become arbiters of the broadest and deepest information streams humanity has ever assembled, giving them unprecedented control over what people can see, hear, and say.

I strongly urge the FCC to stand firm against attempts to rewrite our communications laws because in so doing they would be taking a significant step toward safeguarding the long-term integrity of our public communications networks.