An MLK Reminder: We Need Access to Inspire Change
By Jordan Berg Powers, January 19, 2010
Every Martin Luther King Day, I honor Dr. King’s legacy by watching video clips of his speeches. But it’s not just his speeches I seek out; I tap into an entire archive of black intellectuals and civil rights leaders for inspiration and guidance. Inspired, I check my e-mail for updates from social justice organizations on current battles for racial equality. Then I search for ways to volunteer and give back on this hallowed day. It’s a routine that may not be unique to many of you reading this blog post.
And it’s a routine made possible by the open Internet, and more specifically, by the principle of Net Neutrality, which allows Internet users to go anywhere they want on the Web without discrimination from Internet service providers.
But our freedom online is currently under attack by well financed telecommunications corporations that are trying to stop the FCC’s efforts to create a strong rule to protect Net Neutrality. These companies want the right to charge users according to how fast their content loads on the Web, and those who can’t pay will see their Web sites and videos load slowly or not at all. Right now, the Internet is an equal platform where all voices are recognized and no content is prioritized over other content. But without Net Neutrality, there will be no protection from corporations, and people of color will be at risk of becoming second-class digital citizens.
The civil rights movement needed the power of local radio to express opinions and organize opposition. Media access free from corporate gatekeepers was indispensable to communicating the unpopular and revolutionary message of racial equality. These gatekeepers would have blocked the message out of racism or out of simply not wanting to offend the dominant culture.
While we continue the fight to realize Dr. King’s dream of racial equality, we must not allow access to modern communications technology to be taken away. We in the justice community communicate with our members and organize for change using the Internet. Would Comcast allow that to happen if our positions hurt its corporate bottom line and it had free reign to block or degrade speech it didn’t like? I think not.
Organizers and advocates who push our society to be more just cannot depend on the goodwill of those in power to allow us to communicate our messages. We must get involved.
As we commemorate Dr. King’s legacy – which was created and pushed by youth to inspire future generations to work toward equality – we must remember their message: It is not enough to work for change; we need the means to inspire that change. A generation ago, young people across the country organized to give us a day dedicated to that message. Today our fight for justice and racial equality is also about control of the Internet: Will it belong to us or to the corporations?
Be inspired this week by MLK’s words on YouTube, and then go to SaveTheInternet.com to make sure next year we have access to do the same.
Join us and receive special updates just for bloggers!
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It's a great thing that we celebrate Martin Luther King's Day so that we and all the young ones would be reminded that we should fight for our civil rights at all cost.
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Support an Open Internet
We do need Net Neutrality protections to keep the Internet open, nondiscriminatory and democratic and stop unfair bandwidth caps on legitimate users. We need to empower more participation on the Web and in the news media, more participation and more diversity of opinion on the radio dial and on television. Support more public broadcasting, more independent and minority owned sources of media, more hard hitting investigative journalism and participation in the news media. We need a more transparent, accountable media with a free and independent press that protects us from the powerful -- reports about corporate and government corruption and encourage more diversity in the news and on the Web. We need a new national broadband plan, to mandate increased competition in the broadband Internet access market by ending the decade of monopoly and abuse allowed under the Bush Cheney Administration that resulted in cable and telecom companies duopolizing the market. We need wholesale open access on wireless phones so any cellular phone can work with the network of your choice forcing carriers to compete based on the merits of their service. There was a time after all before the Carterfone ruling by the FCC when wireline phones were just as restrictive as cellular phones and tied to specific service providers. The Carterfone decision which forced that market open paved the way for the creation of the fax machine and led to massive innovation. Monopolies only innovate when they feel they have no choice, they do not make network upgrades to improve infrastructure and accommodate more bandwidth usage when needed unless coerced to do so. They see such upgrades as risky and expensive and don't want to make these decisions unless coerced to do so. In a free and open market though participating carriers especially small companies may be more willing to take on the risk and the cost of innovating. With increased competition there is incentive to innovate and keep up with competitors.
We also need wireless Net Neutrality to mandate carriers cannot unfairly discriminate what legal mobile apps we use on our phones over their network.
Sorrry for double post: One more comment for Net Neutrality
First off, sorry for the double post but wanted to say one more thing for Net Neutrality. With an open Internet not only can users inspire access for change -- not only is the Web democratic, nondiscriminatory and useful for users but it encourages creativity and participation. The Internet is the future of all media and we should have a democratic media that serves the public interest. Without enough diversity on the radio dial and on TV today which desperately need independent voices the Internet is the last great medium for free speech. It is not controlled by anyone corporation or government. Efforts to restore Net Neutrality and extend it rightfully to the wireless sector are being made not just in the U.S.A. but up north of the U.S. border in Canada. Canada has its own media reform group with the web address www.openmedia.ca which works toward reforming media the way Free Press.Net does in the U.S.
Independent musicians support Net Neutrality in fact the Future of Music Coalition a few years back launched a campaign called Rock The Net to help protect the open Internet. We need more competitive, affordable broadband Internet access, to close the digital divide, have a national broadband plan to provide universal access to Internet for all Americans which can lead to the creation of several new high tech related jobs. At the same time we need to preserve the democratic openness of the Internet that empowers us to participate, share ideas and information, share experiences and ideas, gain knowledge, be entertained etc otherwise we can say goodbye to the Information Super Highway and the Open Internet altogether. It would no longer be a vibrant, and democratic town square for all of us -- even those who say they are against Net Neutrality and post comments online railing against it are entitled to their opinion under free speech but if we lose Net Neutrality even their right to free speech online can be censored.
We need to encourage better and more independent media, better journalism, better Internet without unnecessary and unfair bandwidth caps on legitimate users, Net Neutrality protections also on the mobile Internet to protect wireless users the same way we are working to protect broadband Internet users from corrupt corporations wanting to become gatekeepers on the free flowing Web. An Open Internet inspires and empowers us to be participative and work creatively. Losing Net Neutrality could mean losing the Internet as we know it. Let's not let that happen!
Even with an open internet,
Even with an open internet, more and more people are being pushed offline by exorbitant ISP rates. There appear to be no controls on how much one can be charged for internet services, nor have there been any legitimate efforts to curtail monopolies by telephone and cable ISPs.