Net Neutrality

Net neutrality is something that I personally believe is essential to keeping the internet an unbiased source of information. Now saying the internet is unbiased is a complete fallacy, but I believe keeping the government and similar lobbyists from utilizing it under false pretenses should be a major concern to internet users. Videos such as that of the Al Gore spoof, shouldn’t be taken to literally, especially since the content presented contains no factual information. As communications professor Nancy Snow put it, “It’s Propaganda 101." The video contains no factual information, but presents a highly negative image of the former vice president, she says. The purpose of such images is to harden the views of those who already view Mr. Gore negatively, Dr. Snow says. In today’s age where political forums such town meetings and political figures on soap boxes are obsolete, keeping the internet “ours” should be a primary concern to all citizens. Especially when our government entities are trying to protect us from terrorists, but all the while are using our favorite technologies to try to manipulate our view points. In addition to my arguments Mark Poster adds an even more interesting twist to my standpoint, In the case of encryption, the United States government seeks to secure its borders from "terrorists" who might use the Internet and thereby threaten it. But the dangers to the population are and have always been far greater from this state apparatus itself than from so called terrorists. More citizens have been improperly abused, had their civil rights violated, and much worse by the government than by terrorists. In fact terrorism is in good part an effect of government propaganda; it serves to deflect attention from governmental abuse toward a mostly imagined, highly dangerous outside enemy.” Although there are many avid internet users making videos on Youtube trying to keep the internet a free forum for ideas, we must realize that while thousands of us are trying to fight off these giants, at the same time you have to wonder how many more thousands of people the government and media moguls employ that are using the same principles we pioneered on the internet against us.