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End of the Internet? Google-Verizon Pact: It Gets Worse
So Google and Verizon went public Monday with their "policy framework" -- better known as the pact to end the Internet as we know it.
News of this deal broke this week, sparking a public outcry that's seen hundreds of thousands of Internet users calling on Google to live up to its "Don't Be Evil" pledge.
But cut through the platitudes the two companies (Googizon, anyone?) offered on Monday's press call, and you'll find this deal is even worse than advertised.
The proposal is one massive loophole that sets the stage for the corporate takeover of the Internet.
Real Net Neutrality means that Internet service providers can't discriminate between different kinds of online content and applications. It guarantees a level playing field for all Web sites and Internet technologies. It's what makes sure the next Google, out there in a garage somewhere, has just as good a chance as any giant corporate behemoth to find its audience and thrive online.
What Google and Verizon are proposing is fake Net Neutrality. You can read their framework for yourself here or go here to see Google twisting itself in knots about this suddenly "thorny issue." But here are the basics of what the two companies are proposing:
- Under their proposal, there would be no Net Neutrality on wireless networks -- meaning anything goes, from blocking websites and applications to pay-for-priority treatment.
- Their proposed standard for "non-discrimination" on wired networks is so weak that actions like Comcast's widely denounced blocking of BitTorrent would be allowed.
- The deal would let ISPs like Verizon -- instead of Internet users like you -- decide which applications deserve the best quality of service. That's not the way the Internet has ever worked, and it threatens to close the door on tomorrow's innovative applications. (If RealPlayer had been favored a few years ago, would we ever have gotten YouTube?)
- The deal would allow ISPs to effectively split the Internet into "two pipes" -- one of which would be reserved for "managed services," a pay-for-play platform for content and applications. This is the proverbial toll road on the information superhighway, a fast lane reserved for the select few, while the rest of us are stuck on the cyber-equivalent of a winding dirt road.
- The pact proposes to turn the Federal Communications Commission into a toothless watchdog, left fruitlessly chasing consumer complaints but unable to make rules of its own. Instead, it would leave it up to unaccountable (and almost surely industry-controlled) third parties to decide what the rules should be.
If there's a silver lining in this whole fiasco it's that, last I checked anyway, it wasn't up to Google and Verizon to write the rules. That's why we have Congress and the FCC.
Certainly by now we should have learned -- from AIG, Massey Energy, BP, you name it -- what happens when we let big companies regulate themselves or hope they'll do the right thing.
We need the FCC -- with the backing of Congress and President Obama -- to step and do the hard work of governing. That means restoring the FCC's authority to protect Internet users and safeguarding real Net Neutrality once and for all.
Such a move might not be popular on Wall Street or even in certain corners of Silicon Valley, but it's the kind of leadership the public needs right now.
If you haven't yet told the FCC why we need Net Neutrality, please do it now.
Craig Aaron is the managing director of Free Press, the national, nonpartisan, nonprofit media reform group, where he leads all program, public advocacy and communications work, including the SavetheInternet.com and SaveTheNews.org campaigns.
105 Comments so far
Show AllThis is truly SERIOUS. We must circulate this info to friends & unlikely allies to get support from everyone. I reposted on facebook. I hope you'll do the same.
Or follow the lead of BRAVE people like the peasants of Haiti who are torching agri-biz seeds at the port. What ?!! Dianne and Oprah 'forgot to tell you about that ?"
Until we , ( the GREAT AMERICAN sheeple ) take physical action the f'n hope and change frauds will not relent. Did you fail to take the movie 'brother where art thou ' seriously. ? Then you are just another victim of abject divisive racism , whether Taft's or Malcomn what's his name , ( Chivington ? ).
I submit that there is not one speck of difference between - custer , malcomn -x , osama been hidin , chivington , andrew jackson , trump , gates , obama , limbaugh , stalin , mao , ING SAHRAY , or your favorite uncle.
Sto[p buying their squat and you will break them ! That is unless your fear is greater than your resolve. Are you so afraid of being a peasant that you will exterminate the . . . bears , wolves . salmon , owls , redwoods , giraffes , mountain gorillas , whales and heirloom Italian grapes in the naME OF CONVENIENCE?
once again I am forced to expletive . . . FU!
Some people need to wake up in bed, and find next to them the severed head and neck of a horse.
Or their neighhhh . . bor. No pun intended ?
...follow the money...turn the faucet off...dump them both...hit their collective wallets...our world is sick with greed...Update...so now I use ixquick for search...dumped all my google bookmarks and deleted my video's on the tube which hurt being a guitar player and any google app's on my machine...
"We need the FCC -- with the backing of Congress and President Obama -- to step and do the hard work of governing."
Wake me up when that happens!! Like the guy said: "Follow the money"
It's the next paragraph that made me spit out my coffee:
"Such a move might not be popular on Wall Street or even in certain corners of Silicon Valley, but it's the kind of leadership the public needs right now."
Congress and the "0" Admin moving against the wishes of Wall Street? Talk about delusional...
Expect lots of e-mail to the FCC that will sound just like this:
Big Government most end it attempts to regulate Free Enterprise and Freedom. Keep Socialist Obama and the Socialist FCC's hands off the Internet! Keep the Internet in the hands if Private Enterprise and Free - regulated only by the wonders of Free Markets!
I got better messages than that. Americans don't want commies controlling the Internet. Get your commie hands off and let the free markets decide.
Yeah, the First Amendment is an attempt at commie government control of peoples speech too.
Keep your ignorant head shoved up your McCarthyite ass, you murdering mercenary.
Because there is actually a difference between 'free ' markets , trump , gates , bush and stalin ? Wake up stooge.
With no reference to NAIS , or the latest ab version ? They must still have confidence in their purchasing power.b I've got news for you discarding Sabot, ,if , and that's a qualified if , ( trusting that you actually have the capacity for abstract thought ), on a valid percentage of your own caloric intake . . . how much do you provide ?
Me? Well my suburban lot , in a semi-arid landscape with only sporadic rain and aggressive runoff collection can feed 3.72 humans. I have a permaculture garden , four egg layers , four breeding rabbits a couple of guard dogs and enough guns to slam your stupid ass.
Why does the privileged , latte swilling class insist on something that must be enforced by the sons and daughters of the UAW ? Are you so blind as to not see your own complicity ?
Once again I am forcrd to expletive . . .
FU!
key word: latte
I had to laugh when the author extolled the wonders of YouTube. YouTube is frequently censored, wholly owned by Google and, as an owner of an an older machine I could at least view the videos in the "old days" when you downloaded a file and played it, not on Real player, but on any of a number of free, non-corporate players available.
I have become for anything that Wall Street is against.
Also shun anyone you know that is invested in both Google and Verizon.
Fennec . Is that an Amish name ?
'The Unsettling of America / Culture and Agriculture'
by
Wendell Berry
" This book was meant to be a criticism of what I have called modern or orthodox agriculture. As I now realize , it is more a review than a criticism. Criticism requires a subject that is "finished". When agriculture is "finished", no would-be critic will be available. I am therefore constrained to accept my demotion as a priviledge."
waaaake up politicos , food sovereignty is the only issue.
"If there's a silver lining in this whole fiasco it's that, last I checked anyway, it wasn't up to Google and Verizon to write the rules. That's why we have Congress and the FCC."
Yeah. We're so lucky. :(
Stop whining. It's a free market. The Internet is growing and if you don't like it, don't browse. We don't need no commie government controlling the Internet. HOORAY FREE ENTERPRISES !
Neat move! You can use this comment as proof of your conformity to the regime when
they bust you and try you for some alleged 'dissent' in the future. Laying the evidentiary trail in advance...smart thinking.
Yeah , like the guiness commercial he's 'brilliaNT'.
Another flagged comment! Why?
I would think that this is an issue that both "right" and "left" would agree on - but I wonder if Teabaggers will see through the corporatist ideology.
I think the flag might have been more for the poster than the
post. That jerk is a useless contributor of crap. But I agree that flagging is not appropriate. Either refute with fact or ignore.
I agree.
The first thing to realize is that the U.S. corporatocracy doesn't care what we think. The second thing to realize is that this IS going to happen. The third thing to do is disconnect from the internet when it becomes just another conduit of corporate bullshit.
Seriously, I have lived a long time without television, and it only makes life better. While the internet has improved my access to some kinds of information, I cannot say it has bettered by life (on the other hand, I would suffer without my public library). Certainly I can live without it, and I don't think we'll be able to keep the necessary infrastructure functioning beyond our impending national collapse.
Or, you can get all worked up, fight this thing, and lose anyway.
Hey, this is just in time for the attacks in Iran! Who wants the "Truth" out there?
Not Henry Kissinger or Zbigniew Brzezinski......
Nothing is served by this sort of callow defeatism, FastEddie. If you've having a bad morning, just don't post, ok? If nothing is worth fighting for there is no point posting anything in a forum like this. Net neutrality is something we should take a stand on. It's our only source of a free press anymore, outside of books and tiny-circulation magazines and papers.
FastEddie has a right to his opinion.
Even if that opinion says that we should just give up and let the Internet, our last bastion of free speech, pass away?
I never said we should "give up." I just don't expect to win this fight any more than I expect to see the MIC dismantled in my lifetime.
Our last bastion of free speech, by the way, is the physiology of our larynx, vocal cords, mouth, and tongue.
Ok my bad. I hope we can make this site more constructive before something happens to it.
The Internet is haven for people like me out here in the Sooner and others in equally crimson red states. It's hard to speak out unless you're a rightwing nut in this state. The MIC is too much for them to give up. I can't tell anyone how bad Blackwater is without getting another hissing remark. Oh thank heavens for the Internet !
No "bad" perceived. I, too, think the internet is wonderful as it is. On the other hand, I am an acknowledged pessimist. I don't expect "we the people" are empowered enough to make much difference in our corporatocracy, but then again, I probably won't see the starting point for a pendulum swing back toward sanity, should that ever happen.
Very perceptive! I was indeed having a bad morning yesterday, but I don't think that is cause for self-censorship. I will pause here for a moment and consider why I feel so defeated. Let's see, I'm going to be 53 years-old in a couple of weeks, and:
1. Every war the U.S. has fought in my lifetime (or, rather, the continuous war that has been waged during my entire lifetime) has been a war of imperialism or ideology founded, launched and sustained by lies. Here in 2010 our militarism is worse than ever, producing the economic collapse we are just beginning to experience.
2. There are no viable candidates to represent my progressive beliefs (officially, I consider myself a democratic socialist). Indeed, the entire system of government is now as closed to progressivism as it is to ANY perspective that does not further the neoliberal surge toward an enriched upper class and poverty-stricken lower class (RIP middle class).
3. Socially, the corporate controlled media has done a marvelous job dividing the U.S. population into myriad "us's" and "thems," using "wedge issues" to conceal the class war mentioned above (maybe I have bad mornings because of the constant wedgie?).
4. Environmentally, though the U.S. made progress in the 70s with the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, etc., since the Raygun revolution, the U.S. has led an all-out, ever-accelerating rape of the Earth (ah, another chance to say "good riddance" to Ted Stevens). Now, with the dire consequences of the sixth extinction slapping us in the face and yelling, "Wake up! Wake up!" our "leaders" do nothing but hit the gas pedal.
I could go on, but it's all making for another bad morning. I have been rebuked before for negativism, and it's a fair allegation. That said, I would appreciate someone providing some convincing reason to feel hope. Anyone?
>>FastEddie75 wrote: That said, I would appreciate someone providing some convincing reason to feel hope. Anyone?
Do not underestimate the power of the individual awakening. It is possible that it is already happening everywhere, although the effects may not be visible. And it doesn't have to happen at a linear rate. Apparently there is evidence that the human psyche is also wired for empathy, not just selfishness and competition. Undoing millennia-old mistakes can take time, but it need not be impossible.
In any case, it's human nature to fight on till the last breath, even while drowning. However propaganda regarding human nature,original sin, etc., based on faulty or incomplete understanding can make it seem hopeless.
Hey, FastEddie75!
yes to your words...
the unmentioned: scads of old computers and peripherals already created from the living world filling dumps around the globe, even while still functional, as they reach technological irrelevance, and the scads yet to be manufactured and discarded...
the internet, every single server and pc, processor and capacitor, hard drive, keyboard, mouse, monitor, headphone, router, modem, printer, phone, camera, speakers, wire and controller comprising, is manufactured, toxically, from the living world...
paid for with funds earned via the destruction of the living world...
we do not get to continue to choose artificial over natural indefinitely...
dubet, I don't look at internet and computers as just another technology, but as a means to learn and connect. And that's what I don't want to lose - yet. The manufacturing involves toxins and leaves toxic waste. I don't want to make a denialist-sounding claim that we could buy our computers and use it for ages, with only minor upgrades. Because, right now, the only companies that make the components are following a business model that depends on "growth". While the opensource software movement is a symbol of hope and is inspiring, I cannot buy a computer from a local, organic manufacturer - whereas I could buy most other essentials from non-toxic, local manufacturing. Theoretically, at least.
But FastEddie75 is right:
>>I don't think we'll be able to keep the necessary infrastructure functioning beyond our impending national collapse.<<
We have come to depend on something that is unsustainable. Is there any way to keep it going and make it less damaging? I think certain fundamental issues of ownership will come into play. Can I have my cake and eat it too?
We are at a point in time that's a clear fork in the road. It's my belief that the internet and computers can help humanity to choose the safer route.
Any form of worldwide or even region-wide communication is going to cost resources. And this "communication" is more than a phone call. It involves learning and sharing. Any form of sharing using "older" technologies such as books and newspapers are also damaging. I think, under certain circumstances where computers are build to last and people can resist the temptation to keep buying the latest stuff (which can be promoted by strict pricing and by plugging all loopholes that allows environmental externalities to be unpaid for), it's possible that communication, sharing and learning using the internet and computers can be less damaging than through newspapers and books. I think of this every time I see "free" newspapers and flyers - all printed in color - that have a shelf-life of less than a day. Then there are the newspapers that are not free, but with the same shelf life.
When it comes to avoiding toxins and choosing sustainability, it's always a good idea to go for the ideal (as we understand it). But this is one area where I'm ready to choose something that's less than ideal, for now. Since I have no idea if computers can be made from non-toxic manufacturing, I'd better not say anything on that.
hey, Alcyon!
I can only say that I understand your feelings, and feel that way myself, at times, regarding the internet and computing...
sadly, one of the critical factors in modern existence is real and potential weaponry...difficult to voluntarily disarmm, and remain so, if one cannot verify one's neighbors are doing the same...that is where I see computers, etc., as most valuable...
my problem, as always, is in the parsing...the compromise...it can be so easy to find oneself not much different than before...
just the equipment and energy required for the expansion and upkeep of such systems may well tax the already-weakened living systems of our world beyond capacity...when one considers ancillary systems or product lines restored or maintained via compromises, the planet comes up an even bigger loser, if such a thing is possible...
this is my thinking at this time...
peace, Alcyon!
Never say never.
The internet can be a useful tool, one still in its formative stages. Of course it will be seen both as a profit center and a means of controlling information
( propaganda).
But ,while I agree with your general point that we lived without it and can do so again, I must stand against your defeatism. Fighting the creeping (galloping) fascism that is our nations governance is never a waste of time.
Well Eddie, they've come out swinging at you, that's for sure. Actually, I happen to agree with you. I would probably miss my computer and the internet for about 10 minutes. Too much time wasted on the damn thing anyway. Too many advertisements to climb through. (The same reason I got rid of my television.) Anyway, thanks for posting.
"Thanks for noticing me."
--Eeyore
The page on their website is not working. Can't type in the fields, and dropdowns are empty.
Here we go again. The focus is all on Google despite other search engines out there worth looking into. How come progressives rely too much on Google? Nothing wrong with that but do they have to fall for another corporate biggie to help them? Yeah, it's sad that Google was originally a stunningly brilliant product of IT geniuses who wanted it used for social good but decided to join the venal corporate world. But if Google has been complicit in quasi-legal data gathering and is now a party to corporate manipulation where the flow of information may be effectively blocked by the highest bidder, then the end of the Internet has already been here. They are sitting on a f**kin gold mine, to use the words of Rob Blagojevich as he hoped to cash in by selling off another aspect of democracy. Net Neutrality isn't dead and the net is still "open" to some. There's nothing to stop any sales or how the ISPs can control their bandwidth. I abhor censorship right or left. The FCC, legislature, courts, and politicians must have gotten a striking deal a long time ago. We could devise workarounds. We could go back to paper cups and strings, telegraphing, carrier pigeons if they're not extinct, or we could just turn off our computers and fly a kite and do some face to face organizing. Conservatives have a great time getting together and socializing. They may not agree on everything but they sit down and whip up their deals and scratch each others' backs. The Democratic Party activists use Netroots to coordinate meetups. Why can't the progressives do the same? As a recovering conservative open to progressive thinking, I'm attracted to some progressive ideas but nobody wants to organize. Killing what's left of the Internet might force progressives to organize in person and eradicate the know-it-all snots. Hey, maybe dating a progressive won't be so difficult after all. FastEddie's right. Just let it go and get it over with.
ilikeyoucharles
Just running away from the Internet will not Corporate America from taking over where it wants to. As I just replied to Joe, corporations can commercialize anything they want to and they will do it where they see it ripe for the money. Sure, we need to organize better but the Internet and especially site has raised a lot of awareness and motivations that would otherwise never have been thought possible. I met a few former Republican conservatives who told me how the Internet has raised their awareness. Some are libertarian thinkers and others are going progressive. The Internet provides everyone who can access it a great wealth of information and the last thing we need are privatization efforts to undermine the Internet to M$M levels. We should not only save the Internet but bring back some improvements and opportunities for search engine programmers to compete.
ThinKingOutsIDe,
Thank you.
revolting
Sad the way Google became corrupted. It is the Willy Stark of information technology. I guess that we may have to relearn old techniques for communication such as telephone trees, letter writing and carrier pigeons if the internet highway becomes clogged with commercial traffic.
Joe
I'm not so sure that going back that far would necessarily get us out of corporate takeover. They'll find ways to commercialize nearly everything. You might not notice it today but a decade ago, there were programmers interested in putting up their own search engines for the Internet community to check out. What happened to those programmers and why were such great ideas crushed? Google was not the best search engine. I thought that Lycos, hotbot, and Yahoo were better search engines in some ways. The people who founded Google were already hooked to doing business with the big corporations and they pretended to be siding with open source. Remember Microsoft vs Google? It was a dummy fight that they were free to fake out on the Internet without any serious competition. I think that we all should seek out people in this world who are interested in sharing their own search engines and make competition possible once again. Cutting down too many search engines is not good for the Internet traffic or bandwidth.
there is always your mind.