Power to the people

This is a good sign. The NYT weighs in on behalf of net neutrality. Perhaps this will pique the interest of the all too many who have dismissed this as alarmist or a simple economic issue. I've heard the argument that the net has been filtered regularly right along. That's true enough but what they're not grasping is the difference between filtering and controlling the content.

Selling preferred search ranking is irritating but a necessary function of keeping the content relatively free beyond paying for general access. Rendering sites inaccessible or unuseable by manipulating their download speed is whole new frontier of consolidation. Thankfully, many Americans understand the danger and have responded to petitions and contacted their Congresspeople. It's working. As the editorial notes:

The House Energy and Commerce Committee defeated a good Net-neutrality amendment last week. But the amendment got more votes than many people expected, suggesting that support for Net neutrality is beginning to take hold in Congress. In the Senate, Olympia Snowe, a Maine Republican, and Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, are drafting a strong Net-neutrality bill that would prohibit broadband providers from creating a two-tiered Internet. Senators who care about the Internet and Internet users should get behind it.

What might have quietly passed through the House Committee never to be debated on the floor has now become public knowledge thanks to the freedom of association we currently enjoy on the internets. This power to organize is precisely what we could lose if we don't continue to keep the pressure on our legislators. If you're a blogger, join the coalition. If you're not, visit Save the Internet to see how you can help protect our last free marketplace of ideas.