You’re reading this blog right now on the Internet. The website that hosts this blog makes this possible. The only reason Blogger (and Google, its parent company) can do what they do–host blogs, provide Internet searches, etc.–is because the Internet as it is today allows them to do these things relatively easily.
I can barely remember a time before the Internet. My first memory of the Internets was watching my older sister use AOL Instant Messenger on our Windows 95 PC (I was too young). I had no idea at the time, but this rogue media would soon revolutionize the way I saw the world.
Since the dot-com bubble burst, “Web 2.0″ has expanded and evolved into a wild beast. Social networking, file sharing, and information gathering have been made possible by innovators who create websites to provide the means to do these things. Since the Internet has low barriers for access and innovation, websites like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube are allowed to exist and expand.
Media conglomerates like Time Warner, News Corp, and Viacom don’t own the Internet. They may own parts of the Internet (News Corp owns MySpace and Microsoft owns a small slice of Facebook), but they don’t serve as gatekeepers to the Internet like they do for radio and TV–yet.
They, along with the national telephone and cable companies like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast, want to own the keys to the Internet so they can control the content and speed of access to websites. This is a bad idea.
If the cable companies had their way, the products they own on the Internet would have “express lanes” while anything else would be harder to reach because of high prices. So the Facebooks and YouTubes–sites that started small and grew–would be at an automatic disadvantage because they weren’t owned by a “gatekeeper.” There would be no room for innovation.
All of this is meant to persuade you, the surfer of the Internet, the enjoyer of stupid videos on YouTube, the social networker on Facebook, to appreciate the golden age of the web we’re living in right now, and to try to keep it golden by supporting the bipartisan coalition to Save the Internet.
The FCC, specifically chairman Kevin Martin, is looking to deregulate media consolidation rules and allow the media conglomerates to gobble up even more media outlets. Don’t let them do it. Tell your Senators and everyone you know to support Net Neutrality and a free press. It’s crucial to our fledgling democracy.
