Net Neutrality Update (November 21, 2017)

So, today, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced his plan to gut net neutrality. He’s a day early and now we wait until December 14 for the full FCC to vote on the matter.

Roger Stone: That Escalated Quickly

Former (and current?) Trump adviser Roger Stone has been bannedededed from the Twitters. Image taken via screenshot.

Um … It looks like Roger Stone has been permanently suspended from Twitter after having a meltdown following a crucial announcement in the Russia probe. Apparently, Stone went on the war path against Don Lemon, Jake Tapper, Ana Navarro, Charles Blow, and Bill Kristol. These guys all work for CNN in some capacity.

Free Speech for All, Even on the Internet?

While I was offline, there were more developments stemming from the violence in Charlottesville, VA. I already talked about the planned protests by white supremacists, but I plan on talking about more of the details in the coming days. But one caveat of this discussion involves free speech, which I will discuss now.

I was made aware of this issue because of an article on the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s website. As the writers of this article point out, the actions of the services involved set an alarming precedent.

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What Happened?

The Daily Stormer, the Neo-Nazi website which was used to help organize the event in Charlottesville, became embroiled in a controversy involving freedom of speech.

Sometime after the attack in Charlottesville, the writers at that site insulted Heather Heyer, the woman who died when she was run over in Charlottesville in a heartless, disgusting article.

Days after that article, The website was essentially taken from the open Internet by GoDaddy and Google. GoDaddy, a domain hosting service, kicked the Daily Stormer off its service and Google cancelled the website’s Internet registration.

This move forced the Daily Stormer to move to the Dark Web. The managers of the website took to twitter on Tuesday, August 15, to tell their followers how they could access the website after the takedown.

The Internet Day of Action is July 12, 2017

I wanted to talk about this sooner, but July 12, 2017 is the Internet Day of action. That day, various websites and Internet companies, like Amazon, Google and Netflix, will be joining in to get more people involved in the fight for net neutrality.

We have until August 18, 2017 to submit comments to the FCC before it votes on the issue of net neutrality. We know where FCC Republican commissioners Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly stand. Democrat Mignon Clyburn is outnumbered, although she might be joined by Jessica Rosenworcel and a Republican of Trump’s choice.

From May 24-45, 2017, Ipsos conducted a poll of over 1,000 Americans adults (354 Democrats, 344 Republicans, and 224 Independents) in all 50 states for Mozilla. The poll concerned net neutrality and the results showed that most adults (76%) are in favor of net neutrality.

Either-one percent of Democrats and73% of Republicans indicated there were in favor of it. Most adults (78%) saw a free and open Internet as a right, which Democrats leading the way with 88% in agreement.

Furthermore, most respondents indicated a mistrust of the Trump administration (70%), Congress (78%), and the FCC (58%) to protect net neutrality.

“Get ready to hear a lot about net neutrality if you use Amazon, Google, Netflix or hundreds of other websites.” 11 July 2017. Web.

This is a quick post, so I will just leave these links here. Please take part because net neutrality is not only important for free speech, but businesses, the sharing of knowledge, and our democracy could be threatened without it.

https://www.battleforthenet.com/july12/

http://www.humanistreport.com/-savetheinternet.html

We Cannot Let This Stand: Net Neutrality and More

In the past, I have talked about the issue of net neutrality because it is an important issue for me. In fact, it should be an important issue for anyone using the internet because of the wide-reaching implications.

It’s amazing to think that the Internet started as a research project due to Americans fears of Communists from the Soviet Union. But by 1973, it grew from a greater project funded by the United States. From its humble beginnings it grew the Internet as we know it because of scientists and researches across the globe.

Congress first allowed Internet to be used for commercial purposes. But did lawmakers foresee that internet providers would try to monopolize the infrastructure for themselves? In any case, we have far too many lawmakers now who want to facilitate that.

I was first made aware of net neutrality in 2012. And I think that awakening has made me a bigger First Amendment proponent. I hope you’ll understand why.

Anyhow, I have been collecting information about this issue for a few months, especially since the change of power. Many observers know net neutrality would be under fire with Trump in office and we are seeing things play out.

That said there’s a lot to discuss, including what we can do about it.

We Need Some New Internet Rules!

This is a busy news week, y’all, but I wanted to rant about the Internet for a bit.

This is a two-part complaint concerning the new rollbacks the Republicans passed and Trump signed and the internet problems I’m experiencing.

Time to Say Hello to My Neighbors!

For the seventh assignment in the Blogging: Branding and Growth Course, I had to go around WordPress and find websites I had never visited before and leave at comments on at least 3 posts. It’s never easy to say hello, but this was good since this lines up with the goals set forth in the first assignment. And along the way, I reconnected with a mutual follower.

Do You Use Adblock?

Well, do you use Adblock? I do but it is becoming harder to nowadays.

In This Argument: They’re Both Wrong (WAW)

For this week’s Write Anything Wednesday, I would like to share a few political musings. I know where I stand and you may differ from me. But that shouldn’t really be an issue … today.

What would I like to talk about? To be quite honest, I’m really going to talk about the issues because …

Ugh …This U.S. Presidential Election really sucks!

Okay, after having got that off my chest, I wanted to say that I was bothered a discussion I read on a forum I frequent. Well, I am more of a lurker nowadays, but I have gone back often.

Political Headlines that Made Me Giggle and Think This Week (WAW)

I’m running late for Write Anything Wednesday yet again, but today I would like to share some political headlines that kinda made me giggle. As I was doing extensive research for a series of posts I’m working on for another site, I came across some political headlines yesterday.