One Reason I Support Obama: Net Neutrality
The New York times recently published an editorial encouraging congress to pass net neutrality legislation. I encourage everyone to read it, but especially those who may not be familiar with net neutrality. Let me quote three paragraphs from it that get to the heart of the issue.
Users of the Internet take for granted their ability to access all Web
sites on an equal basis. That could change, however, if Internet
service providers started discriminating among content, to make more
money or to suppress ideas they do not like. A new “net neutrality”
bill has been introduced in the House, which would prohibit this sort
of content discrimination. Congress has delayed on this important issue
too long and should pass net neutrality legislation now.The Internet, at least in this country, is a remarkably unfettered
medium. If you type in the domain name of a large corporation or a
small blog, a government Web site or a radical political party, the
pages are sent to your computer with equal speed. Like a telephone
line, an Internet connection does not play favorites — it simply
transmits the words and images.I.S.P.’s, the companies that
connect users to the Internet, want to change this. They have realized
that they could make a lot of money by charging some Web sites a
premium to have their content delivered faster than that of other
sites. Web sites relegated to Internet “slow lanes” would have trouble
competing.
- Democracy and the Web NY Times May 19, 2008
As someone who makes a good part of her living, communicates with her friends and consumes massive amounts of content via the internet net neutrality is an exceptionally important issue to me. I’m not a one issue voter but if I were net neutrality very well could be that issue. Barack Obama supports net neutrality as a concept and as concrete legislation. John McCain does not.
A couple quotes from a Reclaim the Media piece:
During a November appearance at Google’s Mountain View headquarters,
meanwhile, Obama pledged that “I will take a backseat to no one in my
commitment to Net neutrality, because once providers start to privilege
some applications or Web sites over others, then the smaller voices get
squeezed out and we all lose.”“I think that Net neutrality is something that we have to look at
from time to time, but I don’t want to see the wealthiest and most
powerful [companies] crowd out the independents, which has really given
[the Internet] its strength and vitality,” McCain said in an interview with WNYC last year. “It’s a very tough issue.”“When you control the pipe you should be able to get profit from your investment,” McCain said at the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital D5 conference.
“The road to overregulated markets is paved with [good] intentions but terribly misguided legislation,” McCain special counsel Chuck Fish said recently at the annual Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference in New Haven, Conn.
One more quote, this one from the Wired blog:
John McCain has been vague about network neutrality both in congressional debates and on the campaign trail. He simply says that the issue is one that can be addressed by market forces.
Obama: Passionately supports net neutrality legislation.
McCain: Does not (passionately or otherwise) support net neutrality legislation.
Net Neutrality is One Reason I Support Obama.
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