Since publication of last week’s edition of a series of tubes, a large development on the subject of Net neutrality has emerged in
the United States. Despite massive lobbying and online petitions, the hopes and dreams of Net neutrality advocates in the U.S. were horribly shattered Thu., Sep. 6 when the Department of Justice ruled against regulating Internet service providers from charging quality-of-service fees to consumers for the use of high bandwidth websites. This decision has officially given ISPs in the U.S. the go-ahead to begin implementing the two-tier system of Internet that has greatly concerned many Internet users.
The U.S. DOJ decided that it should let market forces determine the future of the Internet rather than impose regulations that would ensure the protection of trivial things like Internet freedoms. Sure, freedom is important to Americans, but then so are civil liberties, peace, democracy and checks and balances. This marks another move toward the stance on rights and freedoms the U.S. government has decided to take in regard to holding the interests of corporations above those of its citizens. Once upon a time the American people fought a war over “taxation without representation” charged on common goods like tea and stamps. The monopolies held on these goods allowed the producer to sell at greatly inflated prices.
Throughout its history, the U.S. has prided itself on its accomplishments in being a world leader in establishing a democracy free of tyranny and a constitution that has become an international benchmark in freedom an equality. It seems now that the U.S. is aiming to become a world leader in another realm I like to call takesy-backsies.