Note: I am NOT a tech or security expert, so please don’t take this as an instruction manual or gospel. I’m an avid
researcher of authoritarian regimes, however, and I’ve lived in a place without net neutrality
before.
Please don’t let this
panic you. Nothing is going to come crashing down overnight. But while Ajit Pai’s
decision is making its way through the courts and fighting all the battles it
has to fight from opposition, don’t think the telecomm companies will spend
this time kindly sitting on their hands waiting for an official call to be
made. Chances are slim they’ll throw up paywalls immediately, but I feel fairly
certain they’ll take quiet, subtle steps to begin censoring/suppressing content
they don’t like. HOWEVER. I can’t accurately predict what will happen to our
internet when, so this list is me erring VASTLY on the side of caution.
So, to that end:
1) Get a VPN, which you should have had anyway.
This won’t save you from paywalls if they’re put up, but if, down the line, the
government decides to start censoring critical voices, they’re going to use
your IP address to track you. A VPN hides your IP address. VPNs are by no means
bulletproof, but they’re better than nothing. You can get some for free on the
App Store or Google Play, but I recommend finding one you trust and paying for
it. These tend to be more robust, and based outside the US, making them harder
for ISPs and the government to hack into. My personal favorite is TunnelBear.
It’s super easy to use, but not the very cheapest. It supports 5 connections, so
one VPN is enough for two people’s devices usually.
2) **If you
are an activist in a progressive/resistance group, I would STRONGLY urge you to
exchange phone numbers and possibly physical addresses with your colleagues. Your
Facebook groups are probably reasonably safe for now, but any standalone
websites will likely be shoved into slow lanes or blocked altogether. This will
require you to change the way you meet and conduct business. Make a phone tree
for urgent alerts. ISPs have blocked emails and texts from and between progressive
activist groups despite current net neutrality rules, and I have every reason
to believe they’ll do it more now that these rules are gone. The way we resist will change fundamentally
if our resources on the internet are blocked or restricted. We HAVE to be
prepared for this. This is the one thing you may kind of want to panic about, because without net neutrality, we will not have another Doug-Jones-in-Alabama situation. We will be suppressed. We will be silenced. The internet is our last bastion of mostly-free and equal speech. We MUST be prepared to engage other channels of communication FAST if the total repeal of net neutrality rules is successful. Make plans NOW so you’re not caught with your ass out if shit goes south.
3) Torrent/ download everything you’re going to
torrent nowish. ISPs—who are often co-owners or
stockholders in entertainment companies—won’t tolerate torrent sites for long. Also
please use a VPN while you torrent.
4) Consider backing up/downloading to your personal
hard drive any music you listen to on websites like Spotify, Soundcloud or
8tracks. These will most likely be behind paywalls if the ISPs decide to play
it that way. Even if you can afford to pay for access, the artists may not be
able to afford to keep their material up or they may be censored, so it may
eventually disappear. Be prepared for this possibility.
5) Same story with websites like AO3, fanfiction.net,
Medium, Deviantart, and any other platform on which you upload your and access
others’ creative content for free. I’m
not saying to go on a downloading binge RIGHT NOW, but just be prepared for
changes and definitely make sure you have backups of your own work.
6) Websites where your favorite creators sell their
wares, like Redbubble and Society6, etc., will also experience changes. If you
want to help these creators out, consider pledging their Patreons or donating
to them directly. More of their money will be going to just maintaining their
internet presence if paywalls go up.
9) Download/print this article too. Read it often. Also follow Sarah on Twitter. I’ve said this before, but she’s half the
reason I’m as savvy an activist as I am. Her book, The View from Flyover Country, is definitely worth
your money and time. Sarah has been eerily prescient in her predictions of how
this year would play out, and her insights are brutal but necessary.
10) Follow Amy Siskind on
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and visit her Weekly List website. She
maintains a weekly list of everything that’s happened politically since
January. Sarah Kendzior advised us to keep a list of everything that changes
around us, so we’ll remember what used to be normal, and how normal has been
warped. Amy’s lists are resource-dense and sometimes harrowing to read, but
they are a necessary archive of every single thing the Trump administration
doesn’t want you to remember and what the ISPs will likely censor sooner rather than later. **She
just put up a print version of the list for preorder on Amazon, which I STRONGLY
recommend you purchase if you can afford it.
11) If you are a student, get
as many resources off the internet and onto your hard drive as you can. There
are several websites up currently where you can download .pdfs of textbooks.
There are a few posts on this website that list them all, but I can’t remember
the tags I used for when I reblogged, so if someone else has those posts in
easy reach, please add a link.
12) If you live with your
parents and you don’t want them finding out what social media websites you use,
don’t panic just yet. The price plans for internet service I’ve experienced don’t
work quite like that. You pay a single monthly price for a social media plan,
which includes several platforms. Chances are your parents use Facebook, so if they want to and can purchase a “social media” plan to use FB, sites like Snapchat and
Tumblr and Twitter will most likely already be included, so you won’t have to out yourself
by asking for them. The company did not ask for any personal information like
my social media handles or my profile information. Hopefully American ISPs won’t
do this. They shouldn’t, because they already collect enough metadata on you to
not really need it. So unless your parents go through the onerous process of
requesting records (if these are even available to them), they won’t be able to
scroll through an hourly log of every website you access and when and what you
post.
13) KEEP RESISTING. The fat lady hasn’t sung yet. If we all give up and
pretend she has, we’ll squander our chances to take back what’s ours. The way I see it, we have two choices: to fight to keep what
we have, or to fight to get it back. Choice #1 has always been easier. Know
that there is an army of pissed off people right here alongside you, including
a majority of Republican voters.
Contact your Congressfolks and ask them to support and pass HR4585, the “Save Net Neutrality” bill. It’s not as good as the FCC’s protections, but it’s better than nothing.
Also, remember to take a step back and allow yourself to
turn off from this for a little while. This from someone who’s suffered from
anxiety since I was a kid. So I get how
terrifying and exhausting it is just thinking about all the ways this could
fuck up our lives. Tumblr is really good at manufacturing moral outrage, and
this definitely IS something to be outraged about, but the posts that forecast
immediate and total doom for all internet users are flat out wrong and you
shouldn’t listen to them.
My askbox and messages are always open if you want to reach
out.
Spreading the word and making it clear how serious the net neutrality issue is is one thing, but yall really for actual have to stop with that fear mongering bullshit. Like a good chunk of people don’t even understand that even if it does get passed in congress, it still has to go through the courts, and even after that, there’s already been talk of counter measures from a ton of different states.
People are in a panic and thinking that if it doesn’t fail today than tomorrow the internet is just going to be fucking gone because thats the narrative being pushed, and I don’t think that kind of message is good for anyone, especially the people with high anxiety, who have a hard problem speaking out on these things, which is the exact audience these kind of scare posts are aimed towards.
You know whats the easiest way to get people with anxiety to do something that would otherwise set off their anxiety hardmode like? Fucking tell them the entire truth of the situation, and reassure them that their part in it matters, without saying “If you don’t fucking do this, your life is goddamn over idiot.”
The FCC voted to repeal Net Neutrality, but I would like to reiterate to all of you that now is not the time to panic. It’s time to get angry and active, but not time to panic.
Clickbait sites are painting today as the definitive “end” of it all, but it’s not. This shit’s still got to go through the courts.
The FCC has tried to repeal net neutrality twice before, and both times it got repealed by the courts.
The voting public’s support for Net Neutrality is overwhelming. Last I checked, 83% of polled voters nationwide are in support of Net Neutrality staying.
Republican politicians and lawmakers are aware of this overwhelming support and have been voicing their support as well.
Doug Jones victory in Alabama was a wake-up call for Republican politicians, letting them know they are not invincible.
Join the millions of Americans making their voices heard. Contact your representatives. Call them. Email them. Tweet at them. Anything you can do helps. Use the links provided on this website:
👉 Cards Against Humanity is sending billboard trucks to Net Neutrality protests around the country today. This is our last chance to make calls. Dial 202-759-7597 now to learn more.
A whole bunch of senators have signed and sent a letter to Ajit Pai, demanding him to once again delay the FCC’s vote on a net neutrality repeal until he comes clean about his sh*t. The letter even called
out
the FCC on their use of bots to unfairly tip the balance in favor of the repeal.
Your voices are starting to pay off, but the battle is far from over. If you haven’t done your part yet, please contact your senator or local representative and let them know how much you DON’T WANT net neutrality to be repealed.
Don’t stay silent! Positive change doesn’t come from apathy or inaction. If you keep this up and then some for as long as necessary, you guys could win this battle and stop this looming threat on an open internet.
I’ve already commented on one post, but I can’t with a clean conscience sit by without making my own.
I see so many posts about Net Neutrality, and while I think it’s tremendous how many of you are emailing the FCC, some of those emails aren’t going to change minds.
Some of you are emailing the chairman himself. Ajit Pai was a former Verison employee. It doesn’t matter how many emails you send to him. You could literally tell him that you depend on the Internet’s resources to live, and he would not bat an eye.
Many of you are putting in your emails that hospitals and schools will see troubles. I appreciate the effort, but when these men are the very same men who have already taken SO MUCH from hospitals and schools, will they?
What you NEED to do, is speak their language. That language is dollar signs. Make your voice sound like MONEY THEY WILL BE LOSING.
We live in a nation where restaurants are failing because no one can afford a $20 meal anymore. What makes the FCC think we can afford more than $60 Internet? E-commerce is essential to the US economy. If users are forced to go through paywall after paywall, they will STOP purchasing anything off the Internet. The nosedive in stocks will be the likes of nothing you’ve ever seen.
Without the freedom to choose which websites we visit, the internet, for many of you on Tumblr like me, will become virtually meaningless. Make THAT the message you spread to these two “Yes votes.” Tell them that if the Internet becomes just like cable TV, which none of us are able to afford, they will LOSE the few dollars we have.
They’ll be interested in hearing that.
These are the emails of the two FCC members voting “yes” on the repeal of NN. If anyone’s mind is going to be changed. It has to be one of these guys. And it has to be before December 14th.
Brendan.Carr@fcc.gov
Mike.O’Rielly@fcc.gov
If we speak their language, there may still be hope. Good luck, everyone.
This is an interesting proposition.
So, if the FCC gets rid of Net Neutrality, and the telecom companies start raising prices, you’ll stop buying their internet?
Gee, that sounds so similar to the conservative point of view.
This is literally capitalism.
The next step after getting rid of Net Neutrality (which was non-existent up until two years ago, and the internet was doing relatively fine up until then) we just need to start getting rid of area monopolies so that companies are forced to compete directly with each other for out dollars rather than legislate for our dollars… and we can get Google Fiber, Verizon Fios, and other high-speed network infrastructure into more places faster… and cheaper!
Assuming you drank the koolaid, which it totally sounds like you did!!! (Or you’re bought and paid for, but I’m not going into conspiracy. I’m just gonna assume you don’t understand.)
You want to avoid monopolies? Don’t LET A FUCKING COMPANY HAVE CONTROL OF WHAT PARTS OF THE INTERNET YOU SEE. THAT IS LITERALLY OWNING THE KEYS TO THE ENTIRE INTERNET AND HANDING THEM OUT TO YOUR RICH BUDDIES ONLY. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK DO YOU CONSIDER A MONOPOLY?
A monopoly is when one group controls all of a thing. So I consider Net Neutrality a monopoly.
So you’d like Trump’s government to control what you see? Same difference, except with private corporations, you can pay with your wallet, as this post is suggesting we threaten the FCC and the corporations with. Whereas with a government monopoly, (in this case run by the FCC, a government group consisting of members that we have never actually voted for, by the way) the government will do whatever it pleases with the rules… and the corporations have a direct line into the FCC, by the way (for example, Ajit Pai, the chairman, used to be with Verizon. I cannot imagine Verizon not using that connection no matter which way the vote moves)
Going to your metaphor, I’d rather the keys to the internet be spread around to many holders (the various corporations) rather than only one single key be held by one group (Trump’s government).
great, but net neutrality is not a group. it’s a principle protected by a law. the fcc already has authority, the point here is to get them to keep the law in place.
^^^ Thank you! It’s like, this argument is so bizzare because the CIA, FBI, and NSA don’t magically go away if this gets repealed. If the government really wanted to block content from us, they could law or no law.
Repealing Net Neutrailty would just be giving greedy corporations the option to regulate even more than what’s being regulated right now.
I care about net neutrality a lot, yet I haven’t reblogged any posts about it yet. You may be wondering why and simply put, the misinformation on this site is pissing me off.
Many of you may have seen posts going around with pictures like these:
They’re very scary and compelling. They illustrate a dystopian future where websites are sold like cable packages.
The problem is they have jack shit to do with net neutrality and what the FCC is trying to do, and frankly it makes those of us trying to protect net neutrality look completely ignorant.
So, what’s actually going on? Sorry, but it’s not as interesting as the pictures convey. If you don’t read between the lines it’s going to seem like boring shit. Sorry, guys, but the way that scary as fuck legislation gets passed in this country is by hiding it in a mundane, boring package that no one cares about or pays attention to.
So, what is the net neutrality that’s in jeopardy? Back in 2015, broadband providers became reclassified as common carriers under Title II. The FCC actually pushed for this Title II reclassification at the time so they could come up with stronger Net Neutrality rules. Basically, the FCC has legal authority to keep companies like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon from interfering with web traffic in any way under Title II.
So what’s happening now? Trump’s FCC chairman and Verizon’s bitch, Ajit Pai, wants to reclassify broadband providers as Title I, and let the internet providers, companies like Comcast, AT&T and Verizon, do whatever they want to control web traffic. This includes slowing down service by means of bandwidth throttling.
What does this mean for the internet and how we use it?
1. Companies will have to pay extra money to the internet providers, so their web traffic isn’t interfered with. This will seriously harm up and coming websites. If Google was invented post net neutrality they never would have been able to flourish in the way they have. They likely never would have gotten off the ground which is why even big companies like Google and Facebook support net neutrality.
2. The internet could turn into an oligopoly with only the big companies like Google able to pay enough to keep web traffic flowing. If broadband providers are able to interfere with web traffic to smaller sites there will be no competition on the internet as a marketplace. Oh, you’d love a version of Amazon that doesn’t treat it’s workers like shit and actually cares about mitigating its environmental impact. Too bad, the website is slow as shit if it even loads at all.
3. Any websites the internet providers disagree with will have their web traffic interfered with. This includes important social justice movements like BLM, LGBTQ pride websites, antifa and so on.
Please stop spreading misinformation about net neutrality. These are the facts. Visit savetheinternet.com for more.
🔥 With your help, we passed Title II net neutrality protections. Now we need to defend it.🔥
On December 14 the FCC will vote on Commissioner Pai’s plan to repeal Title II rules. This week he tried to justify that decision with a “myth busting” explainer where he makes a lot of sweeping claims he doesn’t think you’ll fact check.
So let’s go through his big points:
❌ Mr. Pai claims ISPs won’t block access or throttle content
These are the real facts. Before Title II, the internet was so “free and open” that…
AT&T blocked Skype from iPhones (Fortune) and, later, wanted FaceTime users to pay for a more expensive plan (Freepress).
MetroPCS blocked all streaming video except YouTube (Wired).
In today’s media market where the same huge companies make and deliver content, Commissioner Pai wants us to trust that corporations won’t use their dominance to bury competitive content or services.
❌ Mr. Pai claims Title II keeps ISPs from building new networks
Here’s another claim Commissioner Pai doesn’t want you to fact check, but:
AT&T’s own CEO told investors that the company would deploy more fiber optic networks in 2016 than 2015 when the FCC passed Title II protections (Investor call transcript).
Charter’s CEO said “Title II, it didn’t really hurt us; it hasn’t hurt us” (Ars Technica).
And Comcast actually increased investment in their network by 10% in Q1 of this year (Ars).
❌ Mr. Pai claims repealing Title II won’t hurt competition
As we mentioned above, ISPs tried to interfere with the services their customers could access and courts had to step in to stop them.
The FCC tried to craft net neutrality rules in 2010 called the Open Internet Order but the ISPs sued and won. The courts told the FCC that the only way to guarantee a free and open internet was using their Title II authority. Without those protections, any of these things would be legal:
Your ISP launches a streaming video service and starts throttling other streaming services until they’re unusable.
Your phone company cuts a deal with a popular music streaming service so it doesn’t count towards your data cap but lowers your overall data limit. If a better service comes along (or your favorite artist releases new tracks somewhere else) you can’t use it without incurring huge data fees.
A billionaire buys your ISP and blocks access to news sites that challenge their ideology.
Repealing Title II would be like letting a car company own the roads and banning a competitor from the highways.
❌ Mr. Pai claims there won’t be fast lanes and slow lanes
Let’s break this down: We won’t have fast lanes and slow lanes, we’ll have “priority access” and…non-priority access? Well gosh.
🚨 Please help us protect Title II one more time! 🚨
This week we co-signed a letter with more than 300 other companies—businesses Mr. Pai gleefully ignores—urging the FCC to retain the Title II internet protections. Now we need you.
Go to 👉 Battle For The Net 👈 to start a call with your representatives in Congress. Tell them to publicly support Title II protections.
The FCC votes on December 14.
We’re only powerful when we work together.
Oh, also: that post about automatically unfollowing the #net neutrality tag—it’s not true. It’s really not. That’s not who we are. Whatever happened, we haven’t been able to reproduce it. We tried. A lot.
But if it were true—which it’s not, we feel compelled to say again—THAT’S EXACTLY WHY YOU SHOULD CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES and demand a free, open, and neutral internet.
We can do this one more time, guys! ❤️
The interesting thing here is that TUMBLR STAFF made the original post – tumblr is owned by Atlaba – an investment company that is basically Verizon – one of the chief pushers of getting rid of the title II designation. Which is amusing since they are ALSO one of the companies that pushed FOR it in the first plae because it absolves them of responsibility for the content they serve – if they go back to being title I then they need to censor EVERY SINGLE ITEM that goes through their system or become complicit in any criminal activity that occurs. It was one of the big reasons for being “common carriers” – ISPs didn’t want to have to be responsible for the poop people do on the Internet and at the time did not have the tools to filter out the poop that could get them in trouble. Now they think they have the tools to filter the poop and profit from doing so.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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