Internet neutrality Are we loosing free internet?

Since it’s first applications in 1989, internet has grown very rapidly and created a completely new media where anyone can publish or share any content without the approval of a third party. We have stared to experience a new way of freedom of expression. But this may soon change if we do not act consciously.


During the early days of printing technology, the cost of publishing a newspaper was low and there were many individual or small scale publications in circulation. When this cost was raised dramatically, newspapers became a one way medium, carrying news from big media companies to readers. There was no longer space for contributions by everyone. In the early days of radio, lots of individuals were broadcasting and there were many independent radios. The number of talk radios permitted everyone’s voices to be heard by others. But once commercial radios came into being, the new laws permitted only a chosen few radio stations to use these frequencies and this was the end of free radios. People lost their ability to create radios and it too became a one directional media.

In both cases there was an initial explosion of interaction which threatened the interests of certain groups which reacted and changed the whole scene. Now the same is about to happen for the internet.

Internet neutrality is under attack from powerful industries which want to shape it to their advantage. The way they are planning to do this is through your internet connection. At the moment the newest internet connection technology is by fiber optic cables. Telephone companies connect your home or office with fiber optic cables to their center and from there to the internet. But this time they want to be in control of the ways you can use it. Even more, they want to limit your access to certain sites they choose and ask you to pay for the content you want to view.

The future internet may look like this (click to view)

The same media corporations who dominate newpapers, radio and television channels now want to monopolize the internet and it is not that hard if the users do not react to their service providers’ restrictions. They want to turn internet into another one-way process like TV where they will supply the content and you will buy it from them. When we remember that today 60% of all material on the internet is provided by individuals, we can see that the new internet they plan will be nothing like the free internet we have now.

To stop this we have to be aware and we have to show our reaction. Please visit the sites Net Neutrality 101, wearetheweb.org and Google Guide to Net Neutrality. See Humanity Lobotomy on YouTube where I took most of this information from. Read Net Neutrality: Fiction vs Facts (PDF file). Spread the word, let your friends know. Let’s help to keep internet free.