Congress Holds Net Neutrality Hearing
By Jon Bartholomew
Posted on Tue May 06, 2008 at 03:25:34 PM EST
Today in Congress, the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held a hearing on HR 5353, the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act". This is the bill that would make Net Neutrality the law in America.
Network Neutrality -- or "Net Neutrality" for short -- is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet.
Put simply, Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination.
Net Neutrality is the reason why the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation, and free speech online. It protects the consumer's right to use any equipment, content, application or service on a non-discriminatory basis without interference from the network provider. With Net Neutrality, the network's only job is to move data -- not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.
Internet service providers (i.e., telephone and cable companies) have stated numerous times that they now intend to change the way the Internet operates -- from an open and free-flowing medium into a closed system where only the websites and services that could afford to pay hefty fees would continue to operate as they always had. Everyone else (nonprofits, small businesses, bloggers, artists, political candidates, etc.) might find their websites more difficult to find or use. That would be a disaster for our economy, our culture and our democracy.
Common Cause supports HR 5353 and I urge you to contact your Member of Congress to tell them to support it as well.
Tags: net neutrality, media reform, fcc, internet freedom, media and democracy (all tags)
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