I am a little late to the party on celebrating the victory net neutrality had last week. If you are still unfamiliar, last Thursday the FCC approved Title II reclassification for the internet. Basically, everyone but the telecom giants win. Net neutrality remains a reality and the little guys like me still have opportunity to utilize the internet. Time has an article on it if you wish to know more but I am not going to delve into the specifics now. A simple “net neutrality” search will give you anything you wish to know.
Anyway, the reason I bring this up is I would like to thank you: the internet! Because of all of you on the internet, small blogs and businesses like me can continue to prosper and make original content. Because of the grassroots efforts and public outcry generated by those on the internet, net neutrality still exists. There is still incentive to create original content. Had net neutrality been crushed, only large corporations would have be able to pay fees associated with being in “fast-lanes”. Those who would not be able to pay the fees would see little traffic to their content and therefore would have little incentive to continue creating original content. A huge barrier was just overcome last Thursday though, with the FCC’s vote.
The fight is far from over and there are still amazing people working to fight for the internet. We have won a huge battle but the war for net neutrality is still brewing. There will still be telecom giants like Verizon and Comcast trying to suck every last drop of profit from the internet. There are still obstacles that we face. We still have to put up a fight. But from what I have seen in the fight for net neutrality over the last year I am amazed. I truly am amazed at what we all accomplished together.
So I take my hat off to you, internet, and all the wonderful people that make it up. YOU saved it the way we know it today. Now is a time for all of us to celebrate together. We did it! Decades from now we will look back at this time period and remember what we did to save one of the greatest inventions of all time. Thank you internet!
