Join MetalSucks to Help Protect Net Neutrality
Net neutrality is the concept that all traffic on the internet should be treated equally. In 2014, the Obama administration took action to ensure that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) did not have the right to throttle, limit or block users’ access to certain websites. Unfortunately the Trump administration is taking measures to roll back these protections.
Today, July 12th, is the Net Neutrality Day of Action to oppose the FCC’s plan to slash Title II, the legal foundation for net neutrality rules that protect online free speech and innovation. Twitter, Reddit, Netflix, Amazon, Kickstarter, Etsy, Vimeo, Mozilla, OK Cupid, Imgur, Medium, High Times, Funny or Die, PornHub, Patreon, Spotify and dozens of other major sites (listed here) — including MetalSucks — are also participating. While press often focuses on the big names, this is very much a grassroots effort. People are organizing together in online communities, gaming forums, subreddits, and on social media. This is being organized by people hunched over their laptops in coworking spaces, small offices, and at kitchen tables all over the world, coordinating in slack channels, email threads and spreadsheets.
Why is net neutrality so important? If the FCC gets rid of net neutrality protections, the Internet will never be the same. It will mean we all pay more money for a worse online experience. It affects every single person who uses the web, no matter who they are or where they live. Cable and phone companies want to get rid of net neutrality protections because if they can control what sites people use, they can abuse that power to hold popular websites hostage — saying if you don’t pay us we’ll destroy your ability to reach people. If ISPs like Comcast, Time Warner and AT&T can speed up and slow down sites for money, and force small businesses with websites to pay exorbitant fees, that’s a tax on everything. It hits all of us in the pocket, and will mean we all pay more for less.
For independently owned sites like MetalSucks, that means we could be forced to pay a fee to ISPs to have our site delivered to users at the same speed as bigger companies. Like thousands of other independent websites, we quite simply wouldn’t be able to afford it and we’d be stuck in the internet slow lane.
So please. join us and take action: take 15 seconds, click this link and fill out the form to send a message to your congressperson telling them to oppose the FCC’s attempts to limit net neutrality.
For a quick synopsis of why today is so important, watch the Battle For the Net video below. And for a much more nuanced and detailed explanation, we give you the always on-point John Oliver:
