It’s not that I don’t think Net Neutrality is important. It’s just that I can’t be energized by every issue under the Sun. Discussing broadband throttling rates is less interesting to me than discussing macramé. So, I can’t take even the tiniest sliver of credit for the grassroots victory here. I didn’t care. I didn’t participate. And I’m still too bored by the issue to write about it.
So, I give you David Dayan:
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler’s announcement that he will seek to re-classify broadband as a common carrier under Title II of the Communications Act, ensuring equal access to all websites by treating the Internet like a public utility, is the biggest victory for bottom-up organizing since the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in 2010.
When pro-net neutrality groups like Free Press, Demand Progress, and Fight for the Future opposed Wheeler’s initial proposal for “fast lanes” for companies that pay for speedier website loads, hardly anybody gave them a chance of securing a truly open Internet. But despite the gloomy determinism about money in politics, despite the expectations of corporate hegemony, despite the certainty that powerful voices can just drown out everybody else, sometimes people can make a difference through concerted effort.
Why did it succeed where so many others failed?
Basically, the answer is that almost everyone uses the Internet and they like it the way it is. By contrast, almost everyone hates the telecoms.
The conservatives on the Supreme Court don’t really care what people think though, do they? I guess we’ll enjoy this until Justice Kennedy throws a cigarette butt in the punch bowl.