The advent of Net-Neutrality in 2015 was a large and beneficial change in what many considered the right direction. Net Neutrality was coined by ‘Tim Wu’ a Columbia University media-law professor. Net-Neutrality was widely based off of the “Common Carrier” concept which was used to define the specific role of telecommunication companies.
Opinions vary largely upon the complete reasons behind the seemingly benevolent gift that was Net-Neutrality. Seeing as it came from the Obama Government, a government that was widely criticized for it’s broad and expansive dragnet of espionage committed against citizenry; As well as the imprisonment of whistle-blowers in greater numbers than all presidents before him; Combined.
As I stand at the crossroads of what is now a “New World” I must acknowledge what we have lost and what we might have subsequently acquired. It’s important to understand that regulation in any form is stifling, and that law should be in place to encourage growth. I feel that net neutrality ensured the continued growth of giant corporations; Yet obscured the hopeful startups it was meant to create. It’s for this reason I am ‘torn’, as I see benefits in both sides of the argument, often with many of the sides making the argument for their counterpart.
It is in this fashion that when I truly tried to find the basis for why Net-Neutrality was founded, and why it was now removed that I happened upon an epiphany of thought. That epiphany wasn’t foreign, nor was it even so far obscured from my mind. It was the argument itself, the emotions, the passion, the fierce nature of the debate, whether ‘for or against’.
“When has the government enacted legislation that was truly for the people? When was the last time legislation passed that was actually written bottom-up, handed to a representative and passed into law?”
It was at this point that a lightening-bolt of realization struck, leaving me aware of what the emotional banter had left me blind to. The actuation of that mental lever that reminded me that this was Big government and not my friend, not to be trusted for any reason. I was amazed at the group think that had overtaken my critical thinking, as I realized immediately that I had not formed my own independent opinion.
So what did I end up forming? What is the point of all these word’s Valor?
I’ll get right to that-
I believe what we witnessed was an architecture, disguised as a bill and friend of the people. I believe that the bill was set in place to limit service providers and primarily third party upstarts and investors from coming in, and making a stay against the written future the White house had in store for the internet. Remembering that shortly before Net-Neutrality came into play, the internet was in an all out frenzy in concern to the revelations of Prism; Which were compliments of ‘The Snowden Leaks.“
What are the odds that Five Eye nation countries decided to quell national anger, whilst ensuring continued espionage through a cleverly designed bill called “Net Neutrality”?
What are the odds that the bill persisted long enough for ICANN to transfer “Effective Ownership” to the UN, and to persist through what was likely to be a Hillary presidency?
What are the odds that the protection is now removed, having transferred power over parts of the internet to the UN; A location that is deeply subservient to the former president of the United States?
What the odds that Net Neutrality would have remained if Hillary Clinton were the president? Is this move being done to restrict the American population as the first part of a Segregated internet campaign? Do you expect the see yourself in an internet Ghetto?
These are all questions which I asked myself, and the answer was always.. “I can not be certain”. I support the deregulation of big government and I support the expansion of the American dream. What I can not support is the continued cycle of self engorging legislation, the hypothetical reasons for why we should fear change; When the answer is quite obvious in both circumstances.
Which leads me to my final conclusion.
“Net-Neutrality was in effect, the government giving the dog a bone in exchange for a cloak and dagger to move and shift the net around. The repeal of Net-Neutrality is now a revealing of that obfuscated change, and the realization that we never truly knew internet freedom at all.”
