Think about the
websites you visit. The movies you stream. The music you listen to online. The
animal videos that are just too cute not to share.
Now think about the
freedom to use the internet however and whenever you choose being taken away
from you. That’s exactly what Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and other Internet
Service Providers (ISPs), are trying to do.
Right now, those
companies are constrained by a principle called net neutrality — the so-called
“guiding principle of the internet.” It’s the
idea that people should be free to access all the content available online
without ISPs dictating how, when, and where that content can be accessed.
In other words, net
neutrality holds that the company you pay for internet access can’t control
what you do online.
In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission adopted strong net neutrality rules that banned ISPs from slowing down connection speeds to competing services — e.g., Comcast can’t slow down content or applications specific to Verizon because it wants you to switch to their services — or blocking websites in an effort to charge individuals or companies more for services they’re already paying for.
But now the open
internet as we know it is under threat again. Net neutrality rules are in
danger of being overturned by Donald Trump’s FCC chairman Ajit Pai and
broadband companies like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon.
But these corporations
aren’t doing this alone. They’re getting help from at least eight handpicked
members of Congress, all Republicans (Paul Ryan being the most notable), who’ve
signed statements of support for overturning the neutrality rules.
Why? All we need to do
is follow the money.
These eight lawmakers
have all received significant campaign contributions from these
corporations. That means the big broadband corporations and their special
interest groups are attempting — and succeeding — to influence policymakers’
decisions on rules that affect us all.
The fun doesn’t stop
there.
Ajit Pai — the FCC
chairman bent on overturning net neutrality — is a former lawyer for Verizon,
one of the very companies petitioning to have the rules changed.
Lately Pai has
been citing an academic paper arguing that the FCC “eschewed economics
and embraced populism as [its] guiding principle” in making decisions on issues
like net neutrality.
The catch? This paper
wasn’t written by independent experts. It was funded and commissioned by CALinnovates, a
telecommunications industry trade group.
Their biggest member? None other than
AT&T, which stands to benefit a lot if these rules are overturned.
This is just one
example of “information laundering,” in which corporate-commissioned research
is being used to further corporate agendas. It’s just another way corporations
are using their money and influence to lobby members of Congress.
During a recent day of
action, major websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google stood up in defense of net neutrality by using pop-up
ads, GIFs, and videos to inform the public of the issue and ask them to tell the
FCC to “preserve the open Internet.”
You too can fight back
against corporate influence by calling the FCC and telling them you won’t give
up your right to use the Internet the way you want.
Razan Azzarkani is a Next Leader at
the Institute for Policy Studies. Distributed by OtherWords.org.