Gutting net neutrality is a death knell for the resistance.
SARAH KENDZIOR
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
From the moment he launched his campaign in June, 2015, Donald Trump's every tweet, threat and conspiracy theory has been logged and scrutinized, championed by his propagandists and critiqued by his protesters, and transformed into memes and viral tracts.
We Americans may be a captive audience to our reality-TV star who thinks he's an authoritarian, but we are a chatty audience, and our loquaciousness has been our salvation. For nearly a year, we have exercised First Amendment rights like we were working a defibrillator on democracy's damaged heart. We debunked lies, catalogued crimes, demanded justice and created a vast, informal movement dedicated to the pursuit of truth over alternative facts.
But that may be about to end. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission announced it was planning a sweeping rollback of net neutrality, allowing corporations to decide what content is available online while pricing most citizens out of equal access to information.
For nearly a year, America has stood at the crossroads of a damaged democracy and a burgeoning autocracy. If net neutrality is destroyed, we will cross firmly into the latter, and our return is unlikely.
The threat to net neutrality highlights the reliance on social media and an independent press for political organizing in the digital age. Should net neutrality be eliminated, those avenues will likely become curtailed for much of the public or driven out of business due to loss of revenue. Without the means to freely communicate online, citizens will be far less able to challenge the administration. It doesn't matter what cause someone prioritizes: The elimination of net neutrality will impede the ability to understand the cause, discuss it and organize around it.
Read the article at:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/gutting-net-neutrality-is-a-death-knell-for-the-resistance/article37088279/?utm_source=Shared+Article+Sent+to+User&utm_medium=E-mail%3A+Newsletters+%2F+E-Blasts+%2F+etc.&utm_campaign=Shared+Web+Article+Links
= new reply since forum marked as read
‘The elimination of net neutrality will impede the ability to understand the cause, discuss it and organize around it.’
And increase dystopian ideals....
