Why today’s net neutrality decision is a HUGE deal

Today marks a great victory for all humans who use, love, and cherish the Internet. Because today it was declared by the FCC (the Federal Communications Commission) that “no one — whether government or corporate — should control free open access to the Internet.”

In case you need a quick net neutrality refresher, here are a few things you should know: First of all, “net neutrality” is our right to have a free, open Internet —to visit whichever websites we want without broadband providers like AT&T and Comcast discriminating against their content and load time.

This fundamental right was challenged when Tom Wheeler, the FCC’s chairman came up with a plan that was designed to let broadband providers control which sites get better or worse Internet service, according to Save the Internet.

Naturally, everyone was really, really angry about this because it was such a slap in the face in terms of our freedom of speech. It would be like if our phone providers told us which people we could and could not call, or if we were to call our siblings (for example) we would have to wait an extra ten minutes before connecting us. Not OK.

So, we voted on it. And we won. According to NPR, “The dissenting votes came from Michael O’Rielly and Ajut Pai, Republicans who warned that the FCC was overstepping its authority and interfering in commerce to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.”

Like Henry David Thoreau once said, “All good things are wild and free.” Including the Interwebz.

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