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By now, you probably have heard
there is a movement afoot to charge an entrance fee that would give
special treatment on the Internet to those who can afford to pay the
freight. Until now, the beauty of the Web has been that it is free and
accessible to anyone with a computer. We call this “net neutrality.”
It is what keeps the Internet equal to suppliers and users alike.
However, some cable and telephone companies want to take away our
freedom to surf where, when and how we want. These companies want to
create an Internet based on exclusive Web sites that are willing to
pay heavy fees to servers that will guarantee they will get priority
over everyone else on the Web.
AT&T and Verizon, two of the telephone companies leading the charge,
argue that the tiered service would provide them, yes, them, not you
or us, with the money necessary to increase their ability to compete
technically with “streaming video and other high-bandwidth traffic.”
In techie terms, they would give these paying sites more bandwidth in
return for increased dollars. I also read “heavy users would pay more
to telecommunications carriers for the large amount of bandwidth they
use.” This is not quite the same but it translates into big-time users
getting preferential treatment according to how much money they have
and are willing to spend to be at the head of the line when one logs
in. This means there is trouble ahead. If these behemoths get their
way, equal treatment on the Internet will die. Is this fair? I think
not, but in war, love, commerce and now the Internet, almost nothing
is fair.
Those who use the Internet would find doors closed, gates locked, and
the necessary speed to access the sites they want, slowed. Instead of
normal unhindered passage, these powerful providers want to establish
tollbooths along what has been passage on canals normally open to
information that has been there at your choice. A person’s ability to
go where he or she wants on the Web when wanted would rapidly and
perhaps forever be diminished. Any site paying those new and heavy
fees would appear first when you enter the World Wide Web. Phone
companies and cable operators, would block your normal pathways by
first offering the sludge of mass instead of allowing you to use the
corridors of your choice how and when you want. It would take, some
think, immeasurable time to go where you want. In a medium where speed
sometimes counts as much as content, that it is a cardinal sin.
This would result in an Internet that is no longer free.
Discrimination based on big money would reign. Mammon, the evil ruler
of commerce, would control what you can see and what you want to do
only when it allows. It would be the end of democracy, as we know it,
on the Web.
Unfortunately there are those in Congress who think ending net
neutrality is a good idea. Maybe they do not use the Internet much.
Maybe they are afraid of its power and the freedom it brings. Maybe
lobbyists, as usual, are having their way with our elected
representatives. Who knows? We do know that the House Energy and
Commerce Committee do not see this as a growing threat. As usual in
Congress, though, when dealing with what is good for a giant is not
good for the little guy. This committee appears to be against net
neutrality. If the full House agrees with the committee it will
represent yet another give-away by our elected officials who kowtow
and pander to special interests.
 Except for the occasional editorial and the rare story delegated to a
back page, if at all, there is hardly any reporting on this important
issue. Do newspaper publishers and editors, particularly those with
Web sites, think it is too esoteric a subject and thus difficult for
readers to understand? They had better look around quickly because the
smaller sites with less money will face severe difficulty if Congress
passes a bill favoring this madness. But wait. In the face of this
potential disaster, there might be hope. A bill drafted by Maine
Republican Olympia Snow and North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan sets
out new ground rules that would prohibit a system for the few who are
powerful and protects the powerless, meaning the rest of us. They want
to create legislation that will “force Internet providers to treat all
traffic equally.” That is what I want. It is what we should all want.
I am not your typical user of the Internet. I am older. I use it for
fewer things than many other younger people do. It took me a long time
to figure out how to maneuver my way around the Internet. My daughter
who works in online advertising politely and gently admonishes me for
being at times technically inept. I am that, but I know enough how to
pursue what I need without too much difficulty. Mostly I write and
research. I type badly but spell check is a great help and the word
processor I use gets me out of a heap of trouble because corrections
are easy and my copy usually comes out fairly clean, making it less
than difficult for an editor to cope with my sometimes convoluted, and
often difficult prose.
I have a long list of bookmarks and favorites I turn to for
information I might need. I know how to find what I am looking for
reasonably quickly. Without an Internet I can maneuver through how I
want, I and many others less or more sophisticated, would be lost.
In the end, the song we must sing together in the loudest voice
possible, is please don’t take my Internet away. Write Congress and
the Senate, deluge the White House with your plea and make everyone
understand that tying the Internet to a few big holders of Web sites
is no way, as my father would say when he got angry with government,
to run a railroad.
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At NBC News for 35 years, Ron Steinman was bureau chief
in Saigon, Hong Kong and London, was a senior producer on Today and wrote
and produced for Sunday Today. At ABC News Productions, he produced
and wrote documentaries for A&E, TLC, Discovery, Lifetime and the
History Channel. He has a Peabody, a National Headliner award, a
National Press Club award, a International Documentary Festival Gold
Camera Award, two American Women in Radio & Television awards and
has been nominated for five Emmy's. He is a partner in
Douglas/Steinman Productions, whose latest documentary, "Luboml: My
Heart Remembers," aired on PBS' WLIW/21 and the History Channel in
Israel, April 29, 2003. He is the author of, "The Soldiers 'Story",
"Women in Vietnam," and most recently, "Inside Television's First
War: A Saigon Journal," University of Missouri Press, 2002. |
Don’t Take My Internet From Me