Listening to debate re Net Neutrality:
The first I heard of this was yesterday when I received an invitation to protest depriving the FCC of its ability to check the large service providers. The Comcast rep is saying two large companies the other being Verizon make for competition, but the host pointed out that the airline industry devolving down to three airlines is decried as non-competitive.
What caught my attention was the claim in the notice I received yesterday was the charge that major civil rights organizations like the NAACP received large donations from these companies to champion revoking the FCC’s right to infringe on these companies’ right to restrict access. The companies’ argument to these organizations is that they cannot provide internet service to underserved communities read rural and slum areas inhabited by large numbers of the constituencies of these organizations.
So here is my take on it. No restrictions. Why? Because the concerns of the organizations can be addressed on a free market of ideas and acts. What acts? That minority communities get their own services to address the needs of their school children. Of course, their concern is poor kids who cannot access the internet and they are quite unconcerned about some geek coming up with an idea to organize these communities. Yet that is exactly what will release these communities from the sort of poverty they are fighting. It is kind of like putting a bandaid on a cut artery: it’ll work for a moment but evenutally wear off. If, in the meantime, those trying to solve the large problem of poverty find themselves restricted in some way, they have defeated themselves.