Joseph Torres joined us to discuss the meaning and fight for internet or net neutrality. Torres is co-author of the New York Times bestseller News for All the People: The Epic Story of Race and the American Media and currently works as Senior External Affairs Director for the media advocacy group and think tank free press, find out more at freepress.net
*photo from aclu.org
You ask why can’t internet providers have a “vip” speed for websites that are willing to pay more (like airplanes and trains). First of all, are trains/airplanes the correct metaphor for what internet providers do? or are they more like the road/air in which these vehicles travel. The same roads are available for everyone and what one does with their website (car/vehicle/etc) is a different story. And if the “vip” represents the extra perks, then the baseline internet should at least be functional enough where you can do what you need to do without necessarily needing the perks. But these providers are likely to intentionally SLOW down websites that don’t pay the premium costs. Secondly, this really goes straight to the heart of whether COMMON GOODS can/should be privatized to the point where quality or even just availability is proportional to how much you pay. Should the gov give us dirtier water if we’re not willing to pay more/seen as second class citizens (Flint)? Or less electricity (Puerto Rico)? Of course NOT. But they continue to produce these arguments as red herrings to keep us debating over the control of our collective material resources …on their terms!! Having free neutral and unimpeded internet has become a right that’s necessary to the function of today’s democracy. So for them to suggest that we need to pay to have that right is them taking democracy further away from us. And as usual, thanks for a great show.
Leave a Reply