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Comments about Net Neutrality can be filed with the FCC up until July 17, 2017.

When I posted this originally, I actually shut the site down and only this message was accessible against an otherwise black screen. I’ve reposted it as a regular article, both because it’s still vital, and so you can comment if you want.

Opposing viewpoints are welcome in this post’s comments if you actually have something valid to add to the discussion of Net Neutrality, but I won’t tolerate typical partisan political flaming, and off-topic comments will simply be removed.

-Charley
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This is just a hint of what can happen to “little” sites like Lines and Colors if the big telecom companies, Congress and the current administration’s FCC chairman (a former Verizon lawyer) get their way, and sell your internet to the highest bidder.

They want to gut the Net Neutrality rules that, imperfect though they may be, offer some protection for sites like mine from being squeezed out of existance by requiring that the telecoms treat data from sites like this one essentially the same as sites for the big media companies.

The telecoms want to charge the big media companies more to give their sites preference, effectively turning the internet into a toll road for the benefit of powerful corporations, and pushing “insignificant” sites like Lines and Colors — who can’t afford to pay — into the slow lane, and eventually off the net altogether.

If you want the internet to just be more like TV, a one-way stream of whatever the big media companies want to spoon feed you (that you pay more and more for), than relax and do nothing.

But if you want sites like Lines and Colors to survive, and the telecoms to be restrained from treating your internet like their personal cash cow, at your expense, then we need to take action.

Given the current political climate of “corporations get whatever they want and screw the public”, it may be difficult, but our best chance to protect Net Nutrality right now is to create such an overwhelming response to the FCC that it becomes politically embarrasing to gut the rules at this point in time.

Please consider filing a comment with the FCC in support of keeping the Net Nutrality rules in place.

Here’s an article from Ars Technica on How to write a meaningful FCC comment supporting net neutrality.

If you’re pressed for time, here is a site that can automate the process for you: https://www.battleforthenet.com/#widget-learn-more

You can also use the form on the front of the Boing Boing site today.

If you’re still uncertain about why this is important, here is some additional informaition about the principle of Net Neutrality and why it’s vital to protect it.

Lines and Colors will be back tomorrow, and hopefully, with your help, in the future as well.

Thanks!

Charley

(Image above: Thomas Nast)