Without the Internet, I’d be just another failed actor struggling to make ends meet. Because I had the same ability to put together a website and reach an audience as anyone else, I was able to put my words on your screens, and eventually into a book that got into many of your hands. If Comcast or Verizon or AT&T or some other big telecom decided that regular guys like me had to pay some sort of protection money to have the same ability to reach you as Google or MSN does, I never would have been able to get WWdN off the ground, much less found Monolith Press, publish Dancing Barefoot, and start an entirely new career as a writer or have a second act in my acting career. There would be no Tabletop. I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty happy that Tabletop is in the world.
We successfully fought to keep the Internet open and free just a few years ago, but it’s under attack again, another disastrous consequence of the Trump administration.
Here’s Consumerist on what is at stake (again) and why we are here (again):
Why is it in trouble?
The FCC that passed the Open Internet Rule was led by chairman Tom Wheeler, during the Obama administration. When the Trump administration took office in Jan. 2017, the FCC changed too.
At the end of January, long-time net neutrality foe Ajit Pai was promoted to the big seat and became the Commission’s chairman.
Pai has been gunning for net neutrality since the day it was adopted, if not sooner. So although in 2016 a federal court upheld the rules, Pai wants them reversed — and now, he has the means.
Because gaining a majority at the FCC is, on many key issues, basically a matter of partisan math, Pai will absolutely succeed if he wants to, regardless of literally tens of millions of people arguing against it.
Today is a day of action. Today, we are asking all Americans to take two minutes and contact the FCC, to make your voice heard, and make sure the FCC knows that you want network neutrality to be protected. Ars has a good collection of essential reading about network neutrality, but if you only have time to read one of them, here’s a concise guide to writing a comment to the FCC.
Two minutes, you guys. That’s all we need from you today. Please, take action.
But Will, I did that this morning! I’m with you, buddy.
Done. Thanks for the head’s up.
Done. Painless. Defend Net Neutrality!
I’ve contacted them the different ways now.
Done. And I’ve been retweeting about it as well. Let’s keep the internet FREE!
Thanks for posting this…will send it now!
All done! Thanks for the information, and – as an eight-year follower on this here Twitter thing – thank you for being you, and for standing by your principles. I wish you continued success!
Is it getting to a point where we need an amendment to protect the Internet? Signed, Not a Constitutional Scholar
Spladtvforkids from Alabama here, Wil…. I love what you’re doing for this AND us.. I have always been a huge fan of yours. But this gives me a broader respect for you. Thanks man
Monolith Press – founded 2003.
WWdN – founded 2001.
Tabletop – started 2012.
Net Neutrality? Started 2015!
All your great successes were started BEFORE Net Neutrality. Oh, how did you succeed in the EXACT SAME internet environment you want Big Government to protect you from?
“If Comcast or Verizon or AT&T or some other big telecom decided that regular guys like me had to pay some sort of protection money to have the same ability to reach you as Google or MSN does” You have absolutely no idea how Net Neutrality works, do you?
Charging different rates for different services is standard practice at: The post office.
I bet all your fact-free activism was started by listening to John Oliver, right? You obviously haven’t read deeply on the issue.
Wil, stop embarrassing yourself by showing yourself to be an ignorant ignoramus (an ignorant person who doesn’t know that he is ignorant and how ignorant he is). Just go back to what you’re good at: making videos of you and your friends playing Kids games and delivering completely unconvincing and painfully-embarrassing-to-watch “performances”.
You’re wrong. Net neutrality has ALWAYS been the standard for internet traffic. There were no fast or slow lanes. It became an issue that needed to be fought for and protected way back in 2006, when throttling was first threatened, and then was finally protected in 2015 by the FCC. And that passage of mine that you quoted? The part you used to make your accusation that I didn’t care about network neutrality before 2015? That passage was originally written and published, right here, in 2006. Your insults and attempts to demean and diminish my work are pathetic, but your entire attack is based on a premise that’s so ignorant, you should be embarrassed.
I don’t know where you’re getting your information, but you’ve been so misinformed or mislead by whatever that source is, you may want to reconsider if whatever else it’s telling you is true.
The FCC regulation based on “Net Neutrality” was started in 2015; before that it was unregulated in this regard. Thus, you are afraid of returning to the very environment you built your businesses in.
The internet grew into something so fast and so integral to our lives and jobs because it was unregulated. Are you so pathetic that you need the comforting embrace of Big Government controlling everything to solve a non-problem?
Doc Stat, you are correct that Wil built much of his online business during the unregulated period of the internet. But what Wil is saying, that you are failing to listen to, is that regulation wasn’t needed back then because the big internet companies weren’t trying do all the things that net neutrality is supposed to prevent (such as throttling, fast/slow lanes, preferred partners, restricting certain sites, etc).
So yes, Wil built much of his onine brand without net neutrality, but that’s because it wasn’t needed then. But the big internet companies have started to not play nice, so now, sadly, we do need some regulation in place to make them behave like they did several years ago.
I’m normally quite the opposite to Wil when it comes to politics, but in this situation he is right. The normal “free marketplace” notion that would normally prevent companies from being dicks when it comes to the internet doesn’t apply here. Why? Because in the US, ISPs for the most part, are all monopolies in their areas. So if my ISP, COX, decided it was going to make Netflix only transfer data to me at 1 Mbps, but allow Hulu to be unlimited because they have a deal with Hulu, then normally I’d be able to be like, F that, I’m going to your competitor. But I can’t do that because there is no competitor except for DSL which isn’t a like for like product.
So when the government creates monopolies and continue to allow them to exist in the form of how our ISP territories work, sadly, we need government to now step in again and force them to not abuse their monopolies. Net Neutrality is 100% necessary until the ISPs no longer have monopolies. If you don’t understand that after my Netflix / Hulu example then there is really no other way to explain it to you.
Wil, I support Net Neutrality 100%, but I’m confused by your statement and your request for action, which seem at odds with one another.
You quote: “Pai wants them reversed — and now, he has the means.
Because gaining a majority at the FCC is, on many key issues, basically a matter of partisan math, Pai will absolutely succeed if he wants to, regardless of literally tens of millions of people arguing against it.”
In other words, if he has the means, and if it’s basically just partisan math – then what is the point of sending in a letter or making our voice heard? By the quote above, it’s meaningless – because they don’t care how many people support net neutrality and they’re in a position to get their way now.
Basically, it seems like the problem goes much deeper – the real problem is the fact that the FCC (and government) doesn’t truly reflect the will of the people. Sending in letters to the FCC doesn’t solve that deeper issue nor – by your own (quoted) admission – does it solve the specific issue of Pai gutting Net Neutrality.
So why bother?
Done.