Over the past couple of days, I wrote diaries that pointed at trends that are a threat to not only Net Neutrality, but the basic openness of the Internet that has fostered the explosive growth of such sites as DailyKos, and which have revolutionized the exchange of information as we entered the 21st Century.
Strangling the Net: Stripping DMCA Protections from YouTube
My usual allusion when discussing these issues is to point at the impact on society and history that Gutenberg's printing press had. It literally altered the fundamental balance of power between rulers in the church and the body politic, for it put the power to publish and communicate and exchange ideas into the hands of the common citizen.
That same threat motivates the corporations that run our mainstream telecomm, entertainment, and journalism industries, both electronic and print.
As this article at ThinkProgress points out, the rightwing empire is getting its ducks, its talking points, and its buzzwords in a row to destroy Net neutrality.
What are we doing to confront and stop this?
UPDATE: As mentioned in comments, and on CNET, this may have been a class project? 'Secret' telecom anti-Net neutrality plan isn't
The Center for American Progress seemed to have blockbuster news on Tuesday: an expose titled "Telecoms' Secret Plan To Attack Net Neutrality."
On its Think Progress blog, the liberal advocacy group announced it had "obtained" a PowerPoint document "which reveals how the telecom industry is orchestrating the latest campaign against Net neutrality" through a pseudo-grassroots effort. The story was echoed on Slashdot, Boing Boing, and innumerable pro-regulation blogs.
There's just one problem with Think Progress' claim: It's not, well, accurate.
In a case of truth being stranger than astroturf, it turns out that the PowerPoint document was prepared as a class project for a competition in Florida last month. It cost the six students a grand total of $173.95, including $18 for clip art.
The "No Net Brutality" campaign idea was one of the four finalists created as an assignment for a two-and-a-half week "think tank MBA" program. The other finalists were a project promoting free speech in Venezuela, one supporting education reform in Poland, and one dealing with sales taxes rates in Washington, D.C. ("No Net Brutality" came in third. The Polish reform idea won.)
I keep bringing this up because in all honesty, I fear this is one of the most crucial issues facing us. Powers are gathering that have every intention of shutting down the openness of the Internet. They are coming forward with proposals, e.g., that no one should be allowed on the Internet without full disclosure of their identity. In other words, no anonymity. They are pushing proposals that would end the safe harbor protections for ISPs, and put service providers in the role of playing cops without warrant, and monitoring and pre-approving every last object, article, or thought published on the Internet.
This is not hyperbole, this is not fevered imaginings, this ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't (in fact) no fooling around.
Folks, either you defend it, or you lose it. That is what it is going to come to. And that means confronting these efforts, and doing everything in our power to insure that our beloved legislators do not allow these trends to come to fruition.
The result will be devastating, and end to the Internet we know, and the power it gives us, the average citizen.
Try to imagine if the Internet were run like broadcast or cable TV, where your role is simply to kick back and be a passive consumer. Sure, you could still throw things at the screen from time to time. But could you accomplish what a site like this, DailyKos, has done, in its impact on the electoral process and its influence on progressive politics?
ThinkProgress.org has an article up that illustrates yet another facet of this issue.
Telecoms’ Secret Plan To Attack Net Neutrality: Target Video Gamers And Stoke Fear Of Chinese Censorship
Net neutrality, a guiding principle for preserving a free and fair Internet, means that Internet service providers are not allowed to discriminate based on content for its customers. However, telecommunications firms — like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and others — are firmly against net neutrality because they would like to increase their profits by deciding which websites customers can see, and at what speed. The telecom industry has dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into a lobby campaign against net neutrality. As the FCC now takes up net neutrality rule making, the industry is pushing an "outside approach" of hiring front groups and astroturf operatives.
This morning, representatives from various front groups launched a new coordinated campaign to kill net neutrality. Speaking on Capitol Hill, these front groups took turns decrying the evils of the principle of a fair and unbiased Internet.
The article provides video and documents that fact that Grover Norquist is behind much of this effort.
ThinkProgress has obtained a PowerPoint document which reveals how the telecom industry is orchestrating the latest campaign against Net Neutrality. Authored by representatives from the Atlas Network — a shell think tank used to coordinate corporate front group efforts worldwide — the document lays out the following strategy:
– Slides 7-8 calls for the campaign to target "libertarian minded internet users and video gamers" and "social conservative activists" with anti-government messages and a rebranding of net neutrality as "Net Brutality."
– Slide 9 calls for a strategy of creating a Chinese blog to compare net neutrality to Chinese government censorship, outreach via social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
– Slides 10-11 detail how representatives met at Grover Norquist’s infamous "Wednesday morning meeting" to orchestrate the new campaign. Norquist is known to use his Wednesday meetings to plot strategy and conservative coalition building towards lobbying goals.