First thing’s first, we have some more artwork from our upcoming comic book in the Eurasia Gallery. Enjoy!
Unfortunately, we have to get a little more serious today. For our friends in the US, Congress will be voting tomorrow on whether or not to allow the FCC and Internet Service Providers like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T to do away with Net Neutrality. To nutshell the idea, Net Neutrality keeps ISP’s from running the entire internet like a pay-to-play game; if it is revoked, ISP’s can start charging companies absurd amounts of money just to get decent speed, hide access to any site behind paywalls and even outright censor websites and messages that they don’t agree with.
The people over on Battle For the Net are asking that Americans write to and call their Congress representatives to urge them to support the current Title II Net Neutrality laws and oppose the FCC’s and ISP’s efforts to make the internet into a world of micro-transactions and censorship. If you have the time, please check out this site and do what you can to help keep the internet open and reliable.
If you need any further convincing, the internet can help close the education gap in America and institutions like Phoenix University prove that internet-based education can gain Americans real careers. Small businesses depend on the internet to sell their goods and services without paying for physical-store presence and TV airtime; even big companies like video games live and die on their reliable internet speeds, so censored internet threatens jobs all around the country. Artistic movements and journalism live more on the internet now than they do physical media, so censoring the internet will kill America’s cultural development and keep many in the dark about what’s going on in the world. Lastly, sites like GoFundMe.com prove that the internet is perhaps the greatest avenue for charity and outreach. With all of these benefits the internet offers, it’s clear that the ISP’s greed is bad for America; don’t let them have their way here and don’t let them inspire other countries to follow their example.
Thank you for listening to my Real-Talk,
Sean