K. Z: We, along with super majorities of Americans, want to see the Internet treated as a public utility, like electricity where everyone has equal access without discrimination, and not turned into a paid service for better access for the wealthiest.
NEWSLANC: We pay for the amount of electricity we use. Isn’t the problem that with the Internet free to everyone that some gobble up huge amounts so there is less for the rest of us to use?
K. Z: That’s not the issue that they are focused on, rather it is on the quality of service — for more money you get faster service. This will mean wealthy website — like FOX News — will have websites that are instantaneous, while poorer sites like Truthout.org or other independent news sites — will have slow service. This is the current change they are considering.
If it becomes reality the wealthy sites will have many more viewers than the less wealthy sites because people will not want to wait the 5 to 10 seconds for those to load. It will also mean that start-ups will not be able to compete.
If we had the type of system they want to put into place YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and similar sites could not have competed with the established sites because their service would have been lousy. There are current start-ups in the position those were in who are very worried, and there are Internet investors who are holding back their investments to see how this decision goes.
While I understand Kevin’s dislike for Fox News, political disagreements should not trump good technical science. The early days of radio saw a similar but not a technically exact situation with multiple radio stations broadcasting on the same frequencies. Regulatory intervention was needed. The bandwidth of low traffic websites, like Truthout.org will not notice the change.
As for Kev’s supermajority comment, I can only say the supermajority of Americans don’t even know what bandwidth or internet neutrality is but can be counted on to support anything they are told is against discrimination, even if through their ignorance, it will hurt them.