A World Without Net Neutrality
Posted by
Kevin
Verizon thinks it should control what political opinions you should be allowed to express:
Saying it had the right to block “controversial or unsavory” text messages, Verizon Wireless has rejected a request from Naral Pro-Choice America, the abortion rights group, to make Verizon’s mobile network available for a text-message program.
The other leading wireless carriers have accepted the program, which allows people to sign up for text messages from Naral by sending a message to a five-digit number known as a short code.
If there are no Net Neutrality rules, then this is what will eventually happen to the internet. Opinions unpopular with the handful of people who set policy at the handful of companies that control access to the Internet will decide that you aren’t allowed to go places they do not approve of. And don;t blather on about the market, because as the world of cell phone contracts that tie you to one carrier and “end user agreements” that say you can only use your brand new phone on certain networks, the market cannot come close to solving this problem. Unless we want businesses to decide for us what the shape and range of our culture and our politics can be, we need common carrier, open access, and net neutrality provisions on every communications network.
UPDATE: Verizon has backed down.
