From the New York Times, a load of illogical, self-serving tripe:
What Facebook Taught Me About Net Neutrality
A few examples where Andrew McCollum destroys his own argument:
“Some colleges didn’t like Facebook, and because they functioned as their students’ internet providers, they would simply block the site.
While those blocks were always rolled back — often after sustained student outcry — they acutely demonstrated the power of providers to limit the freedom and openness of the internet at whim.”
“Always rolled back.” So, you could say it’s acutely demonstrated that we don’t need government regulation to maintain free access, or to decide what innovation is permitted. And that consumers have power.
“The internet has spurred innovation precisely because it has been an open, level playing field, where barriers to offering new products and services have continually come down over time.”
Yes, precisely as it was for 20 years BEFORE Obama’s imposition of “net neutrality” in 2015. Crediting Obama’s regulation with the innovation which preceded it is breathtakingly dishonest. Freedom is slavery.
“If an internet provider slows or blocks a site that you want to look at, it is denying you the right to freely choose the content that’s important to you.”
Exactly what Facebook, Google, Youtube and Twitter do right now, every f*&king minute, by treating users like rats in a Skinner box; banishing speakers whose politics they disagree with; “demonetizing” sites for the same reason; and skewing search results their Progressive principals’ principles don’t match. For profit. In secret.
“But we shouldn’t stop fighting to make our voices heard. If Mr. Pai’s proposal is adopted, we must take the fight to Congress and the courts until we regain a neutral internet that ensures consumer choice without constraint and innovation without barriers.”
I’m on board with that: As soon as Twitter is banned from banning people; when Google is required to make algorithms that don’t censor – and that don’t favor their own products; when Facebook is made into a public utility; when they all are required to pay YOU for using you as a product and conspiring to track your every interaction. I.e., when they are forced to provide the unfettered access they purport to champion.
Who is it that secretly conducted several unethical experiments in psychological manipulation? Facebook.
Who is it that showed the Russians a way to manipulate voters? Facebook.
Who is it that’s been massively fined for skewing search results? Google.
Who is it that bans normal speech? Twitter.
Who is it that demonetizes educational video channels? Youtube.
Who spies on you and sells your data? All of them.
And most of it is done in secret. You can’t even have a “sustained outcry” if you don’t know they’ve done it. ISPs can’t get away with that.
Here’s what net neutrality is actually about: Getting the government to point guns at what Schmidt and Zuckerberg find inconvenient to their amoral, exploitive business model.