Let me start off asking you a quick question, “how's your Internet?”, no really, how is it? Do you enjoy being able to go anywhere you want, downloading whatever you want, reading whatever you want? (I.e. The Filibust)
Well enjoy it now, because there are several gigantic entities that don't want you to be able to do so.
As we sit here at our computer, on our beloved neutral Internet, broadband providers are attempting to limit the access to the Internet sites that you go to everyday. Companies that provide both Internet and Televison are advocating for the censorship of their competitor's websites. For example, if you use verizon for internet and TV, they would very much like to censor sites such as Netflix, because their watch instantly option is a competitor. Corporations are looking to control the information that you and I take for granted. Even more so, think about having AT&T broadband, and being unable to compare prices to TimeWarner because AT&T blocks their website. Hopefully the FCC will not bow down to their advocacy as they do in nearly every other aspect of their bureaucracy.
Another massive entity looking to control to how you use the web is no other than the U.S. Government. Here is a quote from President Barack Obama himself:
“you’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank that high on the truth meter. And with iPods and iPads; and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — (laughter) – information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation. So all of this is not only putting pressure on you; it’s putting new pressure on our country and on our democracy.
So information is putting pressure on our democracy? Please! The freedom of information IS democracy! The freedom to believe what you want, formulate and opinion how you want, WRITE what you want, thats Freedom!
Now the President does not list “the Internet” explicitly, but he does go on to state every form of new media, except for the Internet. Regardless, its obvious that he is writing about bloggers, and any other sort of information provider that he does not see as truthful. Which begs the question if we can't choose what information to believe, because obviously were too stupid to process what is fact and what isn't, then who does? The government? News corporations? Institutions? The Internet empowers the individual, and is the epitome of freedom. Several forces don't want it to because its their chance to control another portion of our lives.
What do you think? Do companies have a right to control what sites we go to? Is information on the inernet a “distraction” from truth? Filibust.