Rapid's Oratory- The Threat to Net Neutrality

Welcome to another edition of forensics with Rapid, the world's fastest Emboar Trickmaster. Today, we have an oratory speech- The goal of this speech is to persuade people to take an action. I hope this speech persuades you all to take action against the removal of net neutrality. Enjoy~

Let us take a moment to reflect on how amazing the internet is. How awesome it is that you can type in a few words, and a few clicks of a mouse later, you have access to your favorite meme database. However, a new threat has risen concerning net neutrality, a series of laws that keep prevent internet providers from taking too much control. The internet is an equal society, but if the delicate balance of powers is lost, your lolcat can kiss it’s cheezburger goodbye. And that’s what will happen soon, thanks to a courtroom case in January. Due to a technicality brought up in court on January 2014, internet providers may soon have the power to control what we can see on the internet. The internet is supposed to be a free and open place! But the big question we should ask here is- How can we save our internet? Here, I will explain the basics of net neutrality, the big threat to net neutrality, and how we can save net neutrality. We must protect our internet. We must preserve net neutrality.

The first question we need to ask ourselves is this: What exactly is net neutrality? Does it mean that, say, the internet cannot take sides in a war? That’s what I originally thought it meant, but it actually is a bit of a moral code, with laws keeping big internet providers in check. Companies like Comcast and Verizon are not allowed to slow sites down, or block them altogether. This ensures an equal distribution of information through the internet. Thanks to the internet, we are all more connected than ever. We can see what is going on across the other side of the planet, in real time. We can read seemingly worthless trivia on Wikipedia, the greatest internet collaboration ever made. Thanks to the internet, our family is able to video-chat with relatives across the country and the globe; it’s almost as if they actually are at the table for Thanksgiving and Christmas. And of course, the internet has it’s most notable use, the viewing of cat photos and videos. It also fosters entrepreneurship, allowing one person to create the next big thing. This is exactly what happened with Facebook. Most likely, everyone in this room has a Facebook account, besides me- #foreveralone. Before Facebook was this huge company, making billions of dollars through people chatting and playing Farmville, it was tiny. How tiny, you ask? Well, to be precise, the first iteration of Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg in his college dorm room. Needless to say, Facebook has come a long way. And it was thanks to net neutrality that these things are possible! Without it, it would be far more expensive for this one person to start a huge social media site, meaning that we would have been stuck having to actually visit friends in real life. And it would be much harder to get information for your essay, or just see images and videos of keyboard cats and skateboarding dogs. No one would be stupid enough to just throw it all away, right? I wish that were the case…

In January, the FCC lost a court case pertaining to the open internet. If they don’t act soon, it will allow internet service providers, or ISPs, to charge a premium access to it’s customers. On the surface, this sounds stupid enough. But when you look at the power this gives them, the harsh reality of this decision becomes clear enough. First, this allows the creation of a tiered system of bandwidth- a standard lane, and a fast lane. Companies MUST get the premium service if they are to surpass their competitors. Smaller companies are unable to compete, without the money to reach the connection speeds of big companies like Netflix. Your subscription fees may be even higher, since companies now have to pay even more to provide their services. And the same goes for consumers like you, as well. You think paying that much for your internet every month was a lot? Guess what, you’re gonna have to pay twice that amount for roughly the same speed, or pay the same amount and get stuck with cruddy, slow-as-a-rock internet. And the tyranny doesn’t stop there. If there is a company or webpage that these ISPs dislike, they can block them completely. Anti-political rant? Beeeelocked. Workers go on strike? No one will ever notice. But wait, you ask. Doesn’t this violate our rights to free speech? These ISPs don’t care. In fact, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, they already have done it multiple times. For example, in 2007, Comcast blocked file sharing sites such as BitTorrent. Although they claimed to be blocking pirated videos, they were also disrupting legitimate, legal content as well. The FCC managed to stop them, but Comcast fought back, challenging their claims, winning, and threatening the balance of net neutrality.

Now, knowing how our government has a bit of a history of not listening, could there be any way to save net neutrality? Thankfully, movements are being taken to save our internet. Companies like Google, Netflix, and Facebook have been actively fighting these laws ending net neutrality. Now, take a moment to think about that. Normally, you hear about people joining forces with each other to combat giant corporations. But now, we have people joining forces with each other to team up with giant corporations to fight other giant corporations. According to John Oliver from Last Week Tonight, that’s basically Lex Luthor knocking on Superman’s apartment door and saying "Listen, I know we have our differences, but we have got to get rid of that bleep in apartment 3B". John Oliver did an amazing report on the crisis with net neutrality. In fact, he managed to crash the FCC website when he called the internet to arms. And we can join the movement too. See, the FCC has these laws open for comment at fcc.gov/comments. Ordinary citizens have been commenting on these laws to combat this threat. The government may actually be listening to us. We have a chance. If the entire country raises it’s voice, all in protest, the FCC is guaranteed to take notice. And that, my friends, is what we need to do.

The internet is in danger. If these laws are passed ending net neutrality, the internet as we know it will be gone. We rely on the internet for information. We rely on it to stay connected with friends and family. We need it to entertain ourselves with videos of people throwing ice water on their heads. Instead, ISPs will have full control over what we see, along with the extra cost of our internet. The internet is one of the last strongholds of our beloved first amendment, and if we don't act soon, this stronghold will fall. But it isn’t too late! As I said before, these laws are open to public comment. And now, you are all armed with the knowledge of the topic at hand. You can make a difference. You can make a difference! YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE! There is only one thing we need to do: Next time you have access to the internet, go to fcc.gov/comments. Look for proceeding 14-28: Protecting and promoting the open internet. You can even call or mail your state representative. But hurry, as we fight harder, so do the ISPs. They’re fighting harder to abolish net neutrality just to gain a few extra bucks. They claim to be committed to net neutrality, or even stating that it will cost us more than ever. Everyone, the internet has done so much for you. So now, it’s time we give back to it. With your help, WE CAN SAVE THE INTERNET!