Don't Expect to Be Surprised
I'm going to start of by making it very clear that this blog is not intended to be partisan. Unfortunately, the nature of power and politics means that it will appear partisan. Talking about corruption will mean I am mostly talking about Republican politicians and bureaucrats, not because Republicans are inherently more corrupt, but rather because corruption by its very nature only works when it acts upon those in power. (There are those who would argue that the Republican pro-business mindset lends itself more to corruption, but I personally do not subscribe to such views, as I see corruption as stemming from bipartisan human failings).
In the name of bipartisanship, I'll be writing about the fight for one of the few issues that is broad bipartisan support: net neutrality. Since you are using the internet to read this blog, I'm going to assume that most of you already know quite a bit about the repeal of net neutrality. (For those of you who don't, net neutrality is a policy that prevents internet service providers from altering the speed that you can access content or even preventing access to that content based on what the content is; i.e., all internet traffic must be equal). That repeal occurred over a month ago, however, and it is already well known, so it will not be the focus of this blog post. Instead I'll talk about the fight against community broadband.
Community broadband is the idea of using taxes to pay for a town or other community's access to broadband internet via cables laid down by the municipality rather than having each individual citizen pay for their own internet. While this may not be right for every community, it is one option that citizens have to allow access to internet content that ISPs might choose to slow or block. Unfortunately, the legislatures of 19 states, including Pennsylvania, have outlawed municipal broadband networks.
Why do states enact these laws? It can't be along partisan lines; we've already seen that when it comes to net neutrality, both parties are in support of maintaining it. As we can see in this report, Verizon made a number of contributions to other state broadband programs in order to get this law passed in Pennsylvania. While I do not think that the contributions they made were not beneficial (spending money to ensure broadband access for schools, for example, is certainly a laudable endeavor), this shows the strong influence of their money in government. Moreover, the fact that similar laws were passed in 19 states shows how widespread this corruption is.
This is not to say that there is no hope. The event that led to me choosing this particular topic was a glimmer of hope in a sea of irrational bans on community broadband and repeals of basic internet freedoms: Montana has recently re-implemented net neutrality rules for all internet traffic within the state. This is a great step forward for the cause of internet freedom, and it is something that I personally hope will be built upon by other states in the near future.
In the name of bipartisanship, I'll be writing about the fight for one of the few issues that is broad bipartisan support: net neutrality. Since you are using the internet to read this blog, I'm going to assume that most of you already know quite a bit about the repeal of net neutrality. (For those of you who don't, net neutrality is a policy that prevents internet service providers from altering the speed that you can access content or even preventing access to that content based on what the content is; i.e., all internet traffic must be equal). That repeal occurred over a month ago, however, and it is already well known, so it will not be the focus of this blog post. Instead I'll talk about the fight against community broadband.
Community broadband is the idea of using taxes to pay for a town or other community's access to broadband internet via cables laid down by the municipality rather than having each individual citizen pay for their own internet. While this may not be right for every community, it is one option that citizens have to allow access to internet content that ISPs might choose to slow or block. Unfortunately, the legislatures of 19 states, including Pennsylvania, have outlawed municipal broadband networks.
Why do states enact these laws? It can't be along partisan lines; we've already seen that when it comes to net neutrality, both parties are in support of maintaining it. As we can see in this report, Verizon made a number of contributions to other state broadband programs in order to get this law passed in Pennsylvania. While I do not think that the contributions they made were not beneficial (spending money to ensure broadband access for schools, for example, is certainly a laudable endeavor), this shows the strong influence of their money in government. Moreover, the fact that similar laws were passed in 19 states shows how widespread this corruption is.
This is not to say that there is no hope. The event that led to me choosing this particular topic was a glimmer of hope in a sea of irrational bans on community broadband and repeals of basic internet freedoms: Montana has recently re-implemented net neutrality rules for all internet traffic within the state. This is a great step forward for the cause of internet freedom, and it is something that I personally hope will be built upon by other states in the near future.
Net Neutrality is a topic that always makes me a little bit angry. The FCC, and Ajit Pai specifically, have called down the wrath of Reddit (although that might not be saying much). I appreciate how you included state legislation and didn't focus on the federal legislation, because I more familiar with the federal regulations and it was enlightening to learn that 19 states had outlawed municipal broadband networks.
ReplyDeleteJoin me in challenging Ajit Pai to a fight behind the bleachers after school. It is funny how there are so many exceptions when it comes to bribing. The United States does not have an agency similar to the ICAC in Hong Kong, where the purpose is to specifically find corrupt politicians and prosecute them.
ReplyDeleteNet Neutrality is crucial for college students as most of their work is done over the web. It is essential to advance our education. I really enjoyed reading this post and cannot wait for your next blog.
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