Net Neutrality protesters demand Obama fire FCC chair Tom Wheeler
On the 6th of November, net neutrality protesters showed up at the White House demanding Obama fire or demote FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, a former Cable TV company lobbyist
In the face of extreme public opposition to his plans to allow "paid prioritization" or website-paid Internet fast lanes, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler is attempting to use a "compromise" to reclassify Internet Service Providers as something other than neutral common carriers.
Net Neutrality is a crucial strategic issue for social activists, as the bandwidth for paid prioritized Netflix and Youtube would come from somewhere. That somewhere would be the bandwidth required to watch non ad-supported video from sites like archive.org or this one. In addition, a future of rigidly capped monthly bandwidth with exemptions for paying providers could prevent people of modest income from accessing non ad-supported websites. That, in turn, would give both ad supported sites like facebook and the advertisers themselves veto power over what people see over the Internet. Only people able to afford top-tier service would be able to reach unsubsizided content, as what they pay per GB of bandwidth would have to be "competitive" with what Netflix,Google and Facebook are willing to pay.
