Net Neutrality activists blockade FCC Chair Tom Wheeler's driveway
On the 10th of November, net neutrality activists decided to show FCC chairman Tom Wheeler just what the "slow lanes" he is proposing for websites that don't pay a premium to Big Cable and Big Phone would mean. They set up a physical slow lane just for him by staging a sit-in blocking his driveway as he attempted to get in his car and drive somewhere.
Kevin Zeese said of this protest "We’re blockading Tom Wheeler’s driveway because he’s made it clear that when he goes to work, he’s not working for the public, he’s working for Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T, the companies that used to pay his salary when he was a lobbyist for the Cable industry," continuing "The future of the Internet is a life or death matter for marginalized people all over the world. We cannot in good conscience allow this corrupt official to carry on with business as usual."
Under Tom Wheeler's proposals to permit "paid prioritization," big companies like Google and Netflix would buy most of the available bandwidth from the cable and phone monopolies that provide most internet service. This would speed up service for Netflix and Youtube customers, etc, while slowing service from website that do not or cannot pay for priority access to a crawl. Under Tom Wheeler's proposal, the videos I post myself here (unlike the Youtube video posted by organizer of this protest) might have to be downloaded overnight like pirate movies, that is if they are not blocked outright.
That is because archive.org probably will refuse as a matter or principle to pay extortion to Big Cable. Even if noncommercial and smaller websites and their hosts did try to pay for access, huge corporations like Google and Netflix would easily outbid them. Also, the Cable TV companies are desperate to stop people from cancelling their TV subscriptions, and the ability to say, slow down amateur videos of sporting event that compete with paid sports packages would give them just the weapon they need to stop "cord cutters" as they contemptuously call those who cancel Cable TV.
Once Big Cable and Big Phone get control over the Internet, what do you think will happen to videos of such subjects as say, a strike by workers at one of those big telecoms? A non-neutral Internet will resemble Facebook with their aggressive censorship at best and Cable TV at worst.
https://www.popularresistance.org/breaking-net-neutrality-activists-bloc...
Still from Popular Resistance video