Net Neutrality: Saving The Internet - Meet the Friends of the Telecoms

MediaCitizen alerts folks to the pushback from the Telecoms, with a report about a website - www.dontregulate.org - with the sole content being a cartoon devoted to deceiving the public about the issues in play. The cartoon is faux-naive - in a fairly clumsy way - trying to "look" unprofessional while simultaneously describing sophisticated technology. And its attmpted point is to disparage "regulation." This specific point is rebutted here, at savetheinternet.com. Basically, the big telecoms own virtually all of the access mechanisms to the internet - via telephone connection - and so the public is captive to their technology. Currently, all phone users are equal - whether they are calling grandma on their landline or downloading video to their cellphone. The telecoms want to change that, so the content of data transferred over the phone is differentiated in price; a voice conversation would be priced differently from a music download from a blog post from an online video conference. The cartoon provides no identification about it's creator. But it links to yet another site - handsoff.org - which is a more "professional-looking" conventionally designed website, with an "about us" link to this page, which features several logos of member corporations and political organizations. Prominent, of course, are the expected AT&T and Bell South. But there's also the exceedingly reactionary American Conservative Union, and some other anti-"big government" conservative organizations. Plus there are also a couple black civic and business organizations - one of which is the National Black Chamber of Commerce, which (scroll to the bottom of the page) prominently displays its partnership with Verizon. For trustworthy info, visit savetheinternet.com. via Tracy Van Slyke