A Close Shave

Although I'm going off topic again, I hope I'm not the only one that can see the connection with a momentous event that happened in the US about a fortnight ago. An absolutely vital decision on the future of the entire internet was made by just one vote by a bureaucrat in the Federal Communication Commission. Had that vote gone the other way, it's no exaggeration to say that mankind could have been forced back into the dark ages where knowledge could be censored, history sanitised, democracy compromised and campaigning restricted. 

The rapid development of the World Wide Web and internet has been as important to mankind as the invention of movable type and we all owe a great debt of gratitude to Tim Berners-Lee who resolutely fought for it to remain open access. We all know knowledge is power and this truism hasn't been lost on politicians who have made attempts at restricting its power, for example by the Lobbying Act here in the UK. But big business and the capitalist Corporate Giants had noticed as well and they had a cunning plan to gain control. I was alerted to this by the campaigning group SumOfUs.org:-  

SumOfUs.org is a new world-wide movement for a better global economy.

Here’s what we stand for:

• Governments that answer to citizens – not corporations
• Fair treatment of workers and the right of every human being to make a living, safely and ethically, for themselves and their family;
• The right of ordinary consumers to products that are produced and marketed ethically, sustainably and transparently;
• The right of communities to manage and protect their own environment and natural resources;
• Business models that put people and the planet first instead of being driven by shortsighted greed.    

Jim,

The future of the Internet is being decided in the next two weeks, and big corporations are determined to kill it. The US Government is about to establish new rules on how the Internet is protected, with huge global ramifications. Big corporations are spending millions to wrest control of the Internet from the public. They want to decide which websites we can access at fast speeds, putting anyone they don’t like (or who won’t pay them millions) into new Internet slow lanes.

With so many websites based in the US, the future of the Internet itself is at stake. This decision will have a lasting impact on the fate of free speech and social movements across the globe. SumOfUs members in the US are already organizing to defeat this corporate attack on the Internet and save “Net Neutrality”. But around the world, we need to stand up and be counted too.

When hundreds of thousands of people have risen up in the name of democracy in recent years, like during the Arab Spring, a free Internet has been crucial to their fight. But imagine that instead of people organizing using technology to confront corrupt government, and instead of people around the world clinging to the edge of their seats, we were silent, isolated, and indifferent.

This is what could happen if we lose Net Neutrality. Big US corporations could decide whether or not we could easily and quickly access the sites we needed to -- or whether we get stuck with the corporate media they control.

The Federal Communication Commission -- the US Government agency responsible for regulating the Internet -- and the US Congress are making their decision on Net Neutrality this month. Because many of the world’s largest telecom giants and websites operate out of the United States, these rules have the potential to directly affect access to the free and open Internet around the world.

The good news is, that with SumOfUs members in the US joining with millions of others, we’re winning this fight. But we need to keep up the pressure to get us over the line and save the Internet -- which is why it’s crucial to hear from people around the world.

The momentum for Net Neutrality is on our side, and we’ve never had a better chance at winning. After massive public pressure President Obama has come out in favor of “the strongest possible rules” under what’s called “Title II” Net Neutrality -- exactly what we are demanding.

These rules would protect the Internet we all know and love. They would stop big corporations from requiring websites to pay them huge sums of money in order to get access to fast Internet lanes. If sites didn’t pay, corporations could effectively shut them down by making their sites super slow -- like a YouTube video that just won’t load.

The fight for a free Internet is too important to lose. Groups like SumOfUs only exist because of the open Internet of today. Under these new rules, new innovations would find it much harder to take off, because their superior design would be hidden behind an intentionally broken and slow connection.

Valuable resources like Wikipedia could disappear from public view or start plastering themselves in ads to pony up the cash needed to pay big US corporations like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon for the privilege of allowing us to access them. Crucial international moments, like the uprising in Tahrir Square could be censored. History could be hidden from view.

That was a month ago, but then this from 26th February:-

Breaking news: in an historic victory of global importance, the US government just passed rock solid rules to ensure the Internet stays open and free for generations to come.

Big Cable TV and Internet companies have spent millions of dollars to push “Internet slow lanes” that would let them charge us more money to use the Internet, and control what we could access. But after millions of public comments, emails, phone calls, and demonstrations across the country -- loads of it driven by SumOfUs members -- the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has just said an emphatic “no” to a corporate-controlled Internet, and committed to protect Net Neutrality.

With so many websites based in the US, free and open Internet around the world was at stake. This victory will have a lasting impact towards protecting free speech and social movements across the globe. And that is worth celebrating.

Just six months ago, we were facing staggering odds. Big corporations like US cable TV giant Comcast had spent more than $750 million lobbying for a corporate-controlled Internet. Google, the biggest lobby in the industry, was refusing to speak up. The FCC chair Tom Wheeler, a former Big Cable lobbyist, was hostile to Net Neutrality.

But against all odds, we’ve pulled off one of the biggest victories in the history of the Internet, in what the New York Times called "the longest, most sustained campaign of Internet activism in history", won by "an army of Internet activists."

Together, here’s a snapshot of some of the amazing things we’ve done:

• Submitted tens and tens of thousands of comments to the FCC in support of Net Neutrality, making sure the agency received more comments than ever before on a public consultation.
• Flooded FCC offices with thousands of phone calls, to build internal pressure for the agency to do their job and protect the open Internet.
• Tied FCC chairman Tom Wheeler to his past as a former Big Cable lobbyist on social media and his personal Twitter account, forcing him to publicly choose a side.
• Helped turn out hundreds of people to emergency rallies and vigils across the country, including outside the White House.
• Organized tens of thousands of people to speak up online and on the phone to demand Google publicly support real Net Neutrality.
• Pulled off a creative protest to bring Internet slow lanes to life by literally putting private buses transporting Google employees to work in a SumOfUs-created “Slow Lane".
• Worked together with a huge coalition of amazing groups like Demand Progress, Free Press, Fight for the Future, and too many others to count. 

And it worked! Following each piece of the campaign President Obama, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, and Google all came out in support of Net Neutrality -- and now the FCC has adopted an official decision to protect Net Neutrality.

But even though we’ve won this crucial fight, we must stay vigilant. Big telecom corporations like Verizon and Comcast are already working with conservatives in the US Congress to try and undermine our win. We need to be ready to put the pressure on again in the coming months to make sure we don’t lose an inch of our progress.

Up against corporate millions, this decision to protect Net Neutrality is a massive victory for citizen campaigning. Thanks to all of us, we can finally say 2015 was the year we won Net Neutrality. Let’s keep working together to make sure it stays that way.

This is how the BBC reported it:-

New rules on how the internet should be governed have been approved by the Federal Communications Commission. In what is seen as a victory for advocates of net neutrality, the commission voted in favour of changes proposed by chairman Tom Wheeler. Three commissioners voted in favour and two against.

The US Telecommunications Industry Association said that broadband providers would take "immediate" legal action over the rule changes.

The main changes for broadband providers are as follows:

• Broadband access is being reclassified as a telecommunications service, meaning it will be subject to much heavier regulation
• Broadband providers cannot block or speed up connections for a fee
• Internet providers cannot strike deals with content firms, known as paid prioritisation, for smoother delivery of traffic to consumers
• Interconnection deals, where content companies pay broadband providers to connect to their networks, will also be regulated
• Firms which feel that unjust fees have been levied can complain to the FCC. Each one will be dealt with on a case by case basis
• All of the rules will also apply to mobile providers as well as fixed line providers
• The FCC won't apply some sections of the new rules, including price controls

Ahead of the vote, commissioners heard from a variety of net neutrality advocates, including the chief executive of online marketplace Etsy and a TV drama writer. Web founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee also contributed via video link. Columbia Law School Prof Tim Wu, who originally coined the phrase net neutrality, welcomed the ruling.

"It is a historic day in the history of the internet," Prof Wu said. "Net neutrality, long in existence as a principle, has been codified in a way that will likely survive court scrutiny. More generally, this marks the beginning of an entirely new era of how communications are regulated in the United States."

"I think both the Obama Administration and the Federal Communications Commission can consider the rule a legacy achievement." But broadband provider Verizon said that the rules being adopted by the FCC were "written in the era of the steam locomotive and the telegraph".

"Today's decision by the FCC to encumber broadband internet services with badly antiquated regulations is a radical step that presages a time of uncertainty for consumers, innovators and investors," it said in a statement. "History will judge today's actions as misguided".

Scott Belcher, chief executive of the Telecommunications Industry Association, said that the "onerous set of rules" was an "over-reaction from the FCC". He predicted a two-pronged response from the broadband providers. "They will take legal action right away and they will continue to work in Congress to get legislation to address these rules," he told the BBC.

US broadband providers are estimated to spend around $73bn (£47bn) a year on upgrading infrastructure. Net usage is expected to double over the next 10 years and data transmissions to increase eight-fold. "The internet is built on infrastructure. Even to keep at a steady state providers are going to have to invest in infrastructure but they need certainty that they can get a return on their investments," said Mr Belcher. He added that there were concerns that future administrations may use the rules to impose even more restrictions on broadband providers. "The next administration may want to introduce price controls or control infrastructure help where cables can be laid. They could drive the internet to a halt."

The need for new rules was a result of a legal action taken in January 2014 by broadband provider Verizon, which challenged existing net neutrality guidelines. The court found that the FCC had improperly regulated internet providers as if they were similar to a public utility when they were officially classified as information services. It spurred calls for the FCC to reclassify broadband as a utility, with content giant Netflix, one of the most vocal lobbyists.

Hints that the commission was planning on rewriting the rules to allow internet fast lanes was met with a volley of criticism. A record four million comments were sent to the regulator, campaigners protested outside its Washington headquarters and President Obama eventually intervened, urging the FCC to adopt the "strongest possible" rules.