The time has come to again freak out about net neutrality, the thing with the boring name that we seemingly solve every couple of years only to realize that, no, the far-right kleptocracy really fucking hates the internet. On Monday, the FCC will stop taking public comments about its proposal to kill net neutrality. Today’s long-simmering “Day Of Action” held across countless massive websites and tech companies is an attempt to get you—yes, you—to go let the FCC know that you do not want throttled internet speeds, worse prices, and a corporation-friendly online landscape distorted to favor only the massively successful. Details on what to do are below.
The Daily Dot has detailed how this Day Of Action got up off the ground, and it, like many Trump-era #Resistance movements, started via a humble Google document and the sort of grassroots communication platforms that would get immeasurably less free were Title II rescinded. The Day Of Action has roped in quiet support of companies like Amazon, Google, and Twitter, as well as larger banners on sites like Netflix, Reddit, Twitch, OK Cupid, and Pornhub. Mozilla put together a relaxing nine-hour video, which, why not, here you go:
And The Verge published a massive article detailing the state of the free and open internet, or, if you’d like to pivot to video, a video that says the same thing much faster:
The point is, none of us will even get a chance to be fired so our companies can pivot to video if net neutrality is rescinded, thereby dulling the internet as a medium of cultural expression, not to mention social uprising. An internet tilted in favor of massive corporations is one in which all the wily, uninhibited chaos and creativity of the online world is neutralized in favor of streamlined capitalist hand-greasing. It turns a playground into a shopping mall, freewheeling pirate radio into ClearChannel.
You can send an easy form letter here, which is better than nothing. But FCC chairman Ajit Pai—he’s the antagonist here, a Trump-appointed former Verizon lawyer who is dead-fucking-set on making your Comcast bill kill you—has said that they’re more interested in “higher quality” responses. So if you have some time, go here and write your own message, even if it’s just a couple sentences. Among many other things, the way you consume and talk about pop culture depends on it.