November 22, 2017 12:54 PM UTC

Phil Anschutz Can Afford To Pay Off Comcast. We Can't.

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• by: Colorado Pols

For the next few weeks, readers visiting for the first time each day will be greeted by a pop-up message requesting your help contacting Congress in support of preserving “net neutrality” for internet traffic–after new proposed rules from the Federal Communications Commission that could forever alter the way the internet operates, allowing internet service providers to prioritize “preferred” data from entities willing to pay more over everybody else. The Verge reports:

The FCC has released the final draft of its proposal to destroy net neutrality. The order removes nearly every net neutrality rule on the books — internet providers will be free to experiment with fast and slow lanes, prioritize their own traffic, and block apps and services. There’s really only one rule left here: that ISPs have to publicly disclose when they’re doing these things.

In the proposal, the commission calls its 2015 net neutrality ruling a “misguided and legally flawed approach.” It repeatedly states that the 2015 order “erred,” was “incorrect,” and came to “erroneous conclusions.” Removing these rules, the commission now argues, will “facilitate critical broadband investment and innovation by removing regulatory uncertainty and lowering compliance costs.”

…And in a fun twist, the commission also intends to prevent states from passing their own net neutrality laws. Allowing states to implement their own rules, the commission says, “could pose an obstacle to or place an undue burden” on the delivery of broadband service.

You can forget about Colorado’s more progressive state legislature shielding us from the effects–which could range from small annoyances in one’s daily surfing to restrictive “lite” network access plans that wall off whole sections of the internet unwilling to pay for the privilege of having their content delivered, most likely the beginning of a slippery slope from one toward the other. In any event, as a niche provider of our special brand of content to the wide world, we have always seen a very logical interest in everybody’s packets of data being routed to their destination without prejudice.

So yes, if you value the decidedly non-corporate elucidation of news content we do here, and would like to see the internet remain a place where content succeeds on its merits rather than its ability to pay for bandwidth, we encourage you to contact Congress right now and ask them to intercede on behalf of net neutrality before the FCC votes on the current proposal December 14th.