The battle to save Net Neutrality seems to be a never-ending one. Just yesterday, June 28, 2016, over 7,000 sites have added a protest banner which pushes people to send their comments on net neutrality to the BEREC, the EU’s regulator.
The banner, incase you’re wondering looks like this:
Click the banner and you will be sent there. If you’re like me, and you’d rather have it out yourself, I urge you to submit your comments directly to the email address:
NN-Consultation@berec.europa.eu
You only have until July 18 to do this. Do not delay, we need to save net neutrality in the EU right now, before the ISP and telecom giants decided that they can silence dissenting voices online.
Why it’s important to save net neutrality in the EU
Why is this important? Because the language being used in the proposal so far allows lots of leeway from ISPs to:
- Throttle all bittorrent traffic whenever they see it as a ‘threat’ to the network.
- Throttle VPN traffic, and impede on your right to protect yourself with encryption, whenever they see it as a ‘threat’ to the network.
- Allow big corporations the chance to buy ‘Internet fast lanes’ while selling you, the average user, a much slower ‘lane’ online.
We have already fought, and won, real net neutrality in the USA and India thanks to the action taken by people like you. We can save net neutrality in the EU as well as long as enough people make their voice heard. As long as enough people stand up and say ‘I will not let my ISP throttle my connection based on ANY circumstances’.
What experts say on saving net neutrality in the EU
“If European regulators don’t close these loopholes, telecom giants will be able to roll out paid fastlanes across Europe. European users will suffer the most—as sites they love are forced to pay for special treatment—but the impact on the open Internet will be felt globally, as telecom giants conspire with tech giants to silence competing voices.”
This is the fear. If they are given a crack, just the smallest crack in the EU, they can use that crack to wedge in new policies that will slow down websites with competing voices. They could slow down competitors if they felt like it. They could slow down your favorite website if they felt like it. The terminology must be tightened so that when you protect yourself with a VPN you aren’t penalised for it.
The other co-founder of Fight for the Future, Holmes Wilson, expanded on this thought:
“In the US and India, unprecedented coalitions of activists and small startups came together to win net neutrality. Now it’s Europe’s turn to win. Everything is on the line right now, and we have just weeks to make sure regulators don’t sell out Internet users to please the big ISPs.”
It isn’t time to Brexit this up (you’d better believe I was a Remain), EU. We need you to step up and save net neutrality just like the USA and India has. The email to register your thoughts to is, once again:
NN-Consultation@berec.europa.eu
Don’t delay. Don’t think that just because you’re not in the EU that it doesn’t matter. Don’t think that your voice doesn’t matter. It is time to act.
Feature image via symbiot / Shutterstock