Is this a Sci-Fi horror story? Nope, it doesn’t look like it. In fact, congress is voting next week on the issue of Net Neutrality which, despite its difficult to decipher name, is a vital issue to everyone who uses the internet today. Here’s the deal: AT&T and other big telephone companies who transfer internet data over their lines want a piece of the pie that makes big tech companies like Google, Yahoo, and other companies rich. The tech companies basically use the data lines for “free,” while network users pay for a connection.
The way the Telecom companies want to fix this problem is by ending this Net Neutrality and charging people who want to post things on the internet a fee in to not slow down the speed at which data is sent to the page’s customer. This is dangerous, though, because it will mean the the Telecom companies will be able to pick and choose their own “favorite” tech companies, and charge them variable rates. They may even charge the little guys who just want to build a startup from scratch.
Click on the link above to find out how you can help. Start by signing the petition to help save the internet, then call your congressman.
2 responses to “Save the Internet!”
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The tech companies basically use the data lines for “free,†while network users pay for a connection.
That’s not true. Google pays a very large amount of money for their internet connection. Every time you download something from Google video, Google pays and you pay.
The question as I understand it is: should network owners be allowed to prioritize what goes through the network?