Net Neutrality

The United States has a set of laws protecting us that are under attack

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The Benefits of Treating Data the Same

Imagine a world where data can be treated differently. Internet service providers may change their service based on websites you visit, how much data you have used, and what you are doing.

Changing based on the websites you visit means it can block websites or throttle them. They can get huge profits from blocking websites. One example is the government paying them to block certain political standpoints, force you to pay extra for social media, or slowdown when you are trying to watch videos. Now what happens when a major market move happens? They can slow down/block websites so they can get there first. There is zero reason why they wouldn’t do this, we all know how profit motive works. More on this later.[1]

Another problem is propaganda. The ruling class loves it, it’s how they stay in power. They could easily manipulate what you see so that even on 3rd party search engines and social media you only see what they want you to. Misinformation would be at a never before seen level.

Now what happens when the ISP can discriminate on a person by person basis? Writing bad reviews about them? If that mattered they might block you. Too bad it doesn’t. The startup cost of these types of companies is too high (thanks capitalism), so there is a complete monopoly. The majority of people in rural areas can not even get a 10mb/s connection, while the vast majority (even in cities) have only one choice at those speeds. The majority of the United States only has one choice, as long as you don’t count dialup. [2]

Comcast is rated the most hated company in the United States, but that hasn't changed anything. AT&T still has some of the worst customer service in the world, and we don’t even want to talk about places like TDS.[3]

The worst part about discrimination on a person by person basis is that opposing views can easily be blocked. With enough money anybody could be cut from any part of the internet for any reason. People could be banned from social media by the government or any other member of the ruling class. The last of our freedom would be taken away.

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The Freedom of Ideas

They may do more than to just block specific people, but entire ideologies and ideas. You may not be able to kill an idea, but you can slow its spread to a crawl. Smaller companies, websites, and even blockchains may be blocked by ISP. If they are based in the United States, or have a majority of use coming from there, it essentially shuts them down for good. Think of what happens when facebook wants to attack steemit? Steemit loses a massive amount of its users overnight.

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We are seeing the end stages of capitalism before us. We must either fight back or die with it.

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