Fortiani» (Dbserbrr
January I, 2014
Page 15
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Standing Up for Our Online Rights
FCC should
protect net
neutrality
most popular content
available only on cer­
tain tiers or with certain
p ro v id e rs. (Im ag in e
AT&T as the exclusive
home of Netflix and
C om cast as the sole
source of YouTube.)
In 2010, the Federal Communica­
tions Commission tried to establish
concrete rules to protect net neu­
trality. But the agency ended up
caving to pressure from the biggest
phone and cable companies and left
huge loopholes standing in the way
of a truly open Internet.
And now Verizon is in court chal­
lenging those rules— and the FCC’s
authority to draft and enforce them
to protect consumers and promote
competition. That’s because under
the Bush administration, the FCC
decided to give away much of its
by J enn T opper
T he In tern e t is the
world’s largest shopping mall, li­
brary, video store, post office and
town square. When you turn on
your computer, you’re in the driver’s
seat, choosing what you want to
read, watch, and hear.
We owe everything we love about
the Web to net neutrality, the prin­
ciple that the Internet is an open
platform and service providers like
AT&T, Comcast, and Time Warner
can ’ t dictate where you go and what
you do online.
Without net neutrality, the Web
would look a lot like cable, with the
authority to oversee our broadband Intemet.
already was, believe me, things could
networks. The current FCC could fix
Indeed, the second it looks like get worse.) The ISPs will try to read
the problem by reclaiming this au­ the FCC is going to be defeated, you all of your content so they can sell
thority, but it hasn’t yet.
can expect all the telecoms and ISPs you to advertisers. New “troll tolls”
If the FCC loses the case and fails to join hands and declare they’ve will force content creators and oth­
to take the necessary action to re- reached an agreement to self-regu- ers to pay discriminatory fees j ust to
reach people online — and will re­
quire the rest of us to pony up for
“premium” content.
Does that sound O rw ellian?
That’s because it is. But this is no
far-fetched scenario.
It’s time for us to stand up and
fight for our online rights. We need
to tell the FCC to stop messing
around. It’s time for the agency to fix
its past mistakes — and establish
strong net neutrality protections that
are 100 percent loophole-free.
verse course, the agency will be late.
Jenn Topper is the media man­
toothless as the biggest Internet
If this happens, they’ll win and ager at Free Press, an organiza­
providers run amok and destroy we ll lose. Online privacy will be a tion fighting fo r your rights to con­
every th in g we love about the thing of the past. (If you thought it nect and communicate.
In 2010, the Federal Communications
Commission tried to establish concrete rules
to protect net neutrality. But the agency
ended up caving to pressure from the
biggest phone and cable companies and left
huge loopholes standing in the way o f a
truly open Internet.
■ h m m
Communities Different from Our Own
Embracing
diversity in our
citizenship
tems of oppression and its continu­
ing im pact on the Indigenous
peoples which theological rationale
has been based on the doctrine of
discovery.
The doctrine originates
from various church docu­
ments in mid- 1400s Europe to
justify the right to claim the
indigenous lands, territories,
and resources on behalf of
Christendom, and to subjugate
indigenous peoples around the
world. It is a concept of public inter­
national law expounded by the
United States Supreme Court in a
series of decisions, and continually
to be cited even today.
For those that descend from the
westward-bound American, some
see that they have no responsibility
to the current plight of Native Ameri­
can communities, because they are
not the original oppressors.
Still, some descendants acknowl­
edge that they do benefit from the
social systems that were built on the
foundation of land theft from and
subjugation of indigenous peoples
by E lizabeth
L eung
123 years ago this
week, on Dec. 29,1890,
up to 300 Lakota men,
women and children
died in what has become
known as the Wounded Knee Mas­
sacre.
It was the “unforgettable story of
the last major military operation by
the U.S. in its long battle to subdue
the native population of North
A m erica,” the w ebsite o f the
Wounded Knee Museum says.
This last significant engagement
between Indians and soldiers on
the N orth Am erican C ontinent
ended “nearly four centuries of
warfare between westward-bound
A m ericans and the indigenous
peoples.”
The above quotes refer to the
centuries of domination and pat-
^Jortlauò Ö)bseruer
P u blisher :
E d ito r :
Established 1970
Mark Washington, Sr.
M ich a el L eig h to n
E xecutive D irector :
Rakeem Washington
C reative D irector :
P aul N e u fe ld t
O ffice M anager /C iassifieds :
A dvertising M anager :
Lucinda Baldwin
Leonard Latin
R eporter /P hotographer Donovan M. Smith
by their ancestor-settlers.
fit for citizenship. Nowadays, more
According to Citizenship: A Very
I have always wondered how all than 600,000 immigrants become Short Introduction by R ichard
these views would be made relevant naturalized as U.S. citizen every year. Bellamy (2008), there are two views
to the 21 st century immigrant/citi- One of the requirements for natural­ of citizenship developed in western
zen, who as minority settlers can ization is to pass a civics test on U.S. democracies: political and legal.
both benefit from and be marginalized history and government. O f course,
In voting, for exam ple, one ex­
by the same established structures. citizenship isn’t about passing a ercises his or her political citizen­
ship. And in the possession of
the right to the rights, one lays
claim to his or her legal citizen­
ship.
I would suggest, perhaps, in
daily lives we can have an inter-
cultural view of citizenship.
It is not about civic education
in the abstract, but a practice o f
engaging our co-citizens outside
of the election cycle and the im ­
mediate present. It involves a life­
long practice o f learning about
our neighbor-citizen, o f histories
and concerns of the com m unities
differen t from our own: race/
The U.S. have always prided civics test, as a similarly titled CNN ethnicities, econom ics, abilities,
ourselves as being a nation of immi­ op-ed by Peter Levine pointed out; sexualities, and legal status.
grants, though at the beginning our “[fjor immigrants and native-born
Elizabeth Leung is minister for
immigration policy only preferred Americans alike, civic education racial justice for Justice and Wit­
those from western Europe, and only should be a b o u t... promoting high ness M inistries in the United
free white males were considered as and diverse civic achievement.”
Church o f Christ.
/ have always wondered how
all these views would he made
relevant to the 21st century
immigrant/citizen, who as
minority settlers can both benefit
from and be marginalized by the
same established structures.
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