We, as people, have same influence on current Google/Facebook/Twitter/Reddit censorship as we do on future Comcast/Verizon/AT&T/Charter censorship... none what so ever.
Censorship of speech is much much bigger issue for me than Net Neutrality.
I can't stand with multi-billion corporations claiming victimhood on subject of Net Neutrality, while at the same time playing God with people being able to speak their mind.
I agree. But scale does matter. You are not going to be worried about if the person giving you CPR has cooties or not, if you are suffering through an heart attack.
>their evil-ness is irrelevant
It is relevant, because I think free speech is more important than speed of packets. I have to use this opportunity to point out the hypocrisy of these corporations.
Speed of packets is part of free speech, as it affects how it's sent and received.
It's obviously in Google/FB/etc's interest to advocate Net Neutrality, but they'll still be using their algorithms to filter what their users see whether or not net neutrality is a thing.
If Net Neutrality wasn't a thing, FB/Google might have a blow to their wallet. But they can afford it. The hobbyist can't.
And if you can choose between a person with cooties versus a person without cooties to save your life, you'd go with the one without cooties. You have nothing to lose to make the more sensible choice.
I hear you. :)
Do I want Net Neutrality? Yes
Is Free Speech more important to me? Yes
Is pointing out hypocrisy of YouTube at this point important for me? Yes
Will I vouch for a guy who gave me finger at the last intersection, if he gets into an accident no fault of his own at the next intersection? Yes, without hesitation.
Would I have some choice words for him for giving me finger? You bet.
Deal?
It sounds like you have a beef with how the US is currently handling corporate personhood, not necessarily free speech.
The problem is not hosting, the problem is not slow speed, the problem is your audience being pulled from you without any legal due process. From listener's perspective, you are denied audience of the person you want to hear, because YouTube decided they didn't like what is being said and heard.
I find that more suffocating than an ISP slowing down my packets.
Google services were taken away, including youtube, gmail, google docs from paying accounts that Google didn't like. That's like Mead coming into your house and taking away the paper notebook they sold to you a week ago, because they don't like what you write in it.
This is a bit of a tangent, but it sounds like you're wanting a social media platform that has:
1) Popularity (essential for any social platform)
2) Unbiased search functionality (Probably needs to be open source, and will frustrate users with how it underperforms at finding relevant results in comparison to search engines that are closed source and rely on user tracking)
3) Incapability to take down user files and accounts (Tons of legal issues here. Probably needs to be decentralized somehow, or hosted somewhere with lax information laws, otherwise the platform itself would be taken down by the server's location's government)
Edit: And as for your analogy, no. It's like renting a paper notebook, which the seller then takes back because you violated their terms of use by drawing lolicon in it.
DNS can be, and was, taken away without any due legal process. That was my wake up call. Google cloud is registering domains and has that control over it.
When it comes to dire situations, if my ISP does funny business, I can choose another ISP e.g. a mobile connection.
No different than taking another road to go to the bank. My account and money in there is still safe.
If the bank take away my account without due legal process, does it matter if the roads to get to the bank were traffic/pothole/toll free?
For a YouTube content creator, who spent years building brand and audience, one fine day to wake up and have videos demonetized and/or account suspended is like bank terminating your account without giving you a dime from your account. With bank, you can get government/FDIC engaged, with YouTube, they are the Gods of that universe.
>And as for your analogy, no. It's like renting a paper notebook,
Paying account holders of g-suite apps from google, faced account termination with no cause, no access to videos/files/emails. This is digital violence and much bigger threat that has materialized, and is far greater than NN.
If terms of service are enough to allow Google doing what it does, why can't Comcast do the same with their terms of service?
I didn't know it was that easy to do. Don't tell Comcast, please. They would be delighted to hear that terms of service is all it took to convince you to override NN.
You are renting their cable and ability to send traffic over their infrastructure, aren't you? How is cable infrastructure renting different than DNS/Video-site/email renting?
> When it comes to dire situations, if my ISP does funny business, I can choose another ISP e.g. a mobile connection.
No, a mobile connection is hardly a replacement for a traditional internet connection. You can't host a site or connect to it with most devices, for example. And no, most people can't choose another ISP. Comcast will have run out all other competitors, or receive funding from the government to build their infrastructure and outlaw any other ISP's from providing service there (which happened in the outskirts of my hometown, despite us already having a much superior self-sufficient ISP with lower cost.)
> I didn't know it was that easy to do. Don't tell Comcast, please. They would be delighted to hear that terms of service is all it took to convince you to override NN.
Yes, their terms of service is all Comcast needs should there not be net neutrality. You are indeed renting it all from them. Net neutrality will stop them from doing what Google can already do.
I hardly doubt Google's account terminations has anywhere near the level of impact that the lack of net neutrality will have. Once again, you can host your site/media/email and manage your DNS elsewhere. The key to taking down Google's kingdom is to set up competition. Net neutrality will help with that.
And a sidepoint: You should always back up your videos/files/etc. Then if Youtube/etc is taken down somehow, or your account is terminated, you'll still be able to put it up elsewhere.
How do I backup my audience?
>The key to taking down Google's kingdom is to set up competition.
Tread one overlord for another, or be an overlord yourself.
I think anti-competitive behavior laws will play a role in taking down Google.
I can't believe I typed that. I loved, loved, loved Google two months ago. Few with political agenda have co-opted years of work of thousands of imaginative, hard working, caring engineers. Now, I want Google broken up by the government using anti-trust.
For me, Free Speech is the forest, NN is a group of trees in a corner.