Net Neutrality: Corporate Censorship Is State Censorship – International Policy Digest (press release) (blog)
Health + Tech /13 Jul 2017
Organized protests are taking place against the Trump administrations goal of dismantling net neutrality, which will enable the powerful plutocrats who rule the United States to severely limit the ability of Americans to share anti-establishment ideas and information online. The United States of America is not a democracy, nor a democratic republic, nor a representative democracy, nor a constitutional republic, nor any combination of the above. America is effectively a corporatist oligarchy, according to a Cambridge University-published study conducted by Princeton University Prof Martin Gilens and Northwestern University Prof Benjamin.
Since the Supreme Court has slowly made it legal for the billionaire class to fully control the US government by legalizing corporate lobbying and campaign funding in a way that undeniably amounts to legalized bribery (see 1976s Buckley v. Valeo, 1978s First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, and 2010s Citizens United v. FEC), America is now ruled by the wealthy and the people who serve them as surely as a monarchy is ruled by a king or queen.
Ending net neutrality in the name of letting the Magical Free Market Economics Fairy sort things out in an unregulated system, as FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has been advocating, only makes sense if you live in a fictional America that isnt ruled by a small group of plutocrats. Since no American lives in a country wherein ordinary citizens can influence their government in any meaningful way, this cannot possibly be the case.
The US is a nation whose entire government is ultimately answerable only to the owners of enormous multinational corporations and banks, which means that deregulating the ability of those plutocrats to control internet communications is the exact same thing as allowing state censorship. Its easy to get lost in the smaller battles and partisan politics, but when you zoom out and look at the big picture US politics can accurately be described as the slow, suffocating process of robbing the American people of power and giving it to the plutocrats while preserving the illusion of democracy. This new bid to dismantle net neutrality is just one more of the many, many steps that have been taken over many generations to allow this to happen.
Net neutrality is an obstacle for US oligarchs in that it hamstrings their ability to manipulate web traffic away from information which challenges their rule. By dismantling an independent internet, the ever-growing media conglomerates who provide internet services will be able to choke off smaller independent sites by slowing them down with an unaffordable fee for faster service, which will put fewer eyes on dissenting online media. That may be all they need to do to strangle the media revolution, which for the first time in history caused Americas unelected power establishment to completely lose control of the narrative on both ends of the political spectrum in 2016.
The internet has been causing many problems for the ruling class, who up until very recently were able to use the consolidated legacy media they own to manipulate and control the way Americans think and vote. Last year, saw a populist candidate named Bernie Sanders nearly secure the Democratic party nomination while openly using the word oligarchy on national television and speaking out against the billionaire class. Then the official preferred candidate failed to win the general election. This all happened because the American people were able to use the alternative media, social media and WikiLeaks to form their own narratives about what was happening in their country.
Now, the oligarchs were never afraid of either Sanders nor Trump; subsequent events have shown that the US power establishment has been able to push those two individuals around pretty effectively. What they feared, and continue to fear, is the way the people broke out of their corporate media brain boxes and started fighting to take power away from the oligarchs and give it back to themselves. If they lose the ability to manufacture the consent of the governed using their media propaganda machine, they will be unable to govern, and people will use their insurmountable numbers to overthrow them by whatever means.
I feel very confident telling all of my readers that no matter where you are on the political spectrum, the dismantling of net neutrality is bad for you. Go to YouTube and watch some video footage of Ajit Pai right now. Ignore his words and just watch his face, listen to his tone of voice. That is not a sincere person. You can feel it in your guts. Trust that feeling. This former Verizon lawyer isnt trying to dismantle net neutrality because he wants to help you; this former Verizon lawyer is trying to dismantle net neutrality because he wants to hurt you. He wants to take away your power and give it to the ruling class he serves.
Net neutrality was one of the very few victories the American people were able to secure for themselves prior to last year, and they need to fight for it. It will be a challenge, because the ruling elites want the internet as loyal to pro-establishment narratives as they can possibly make it, but its worth fighting for. Dont let these creeps take this away from you.
Read the rest here:
Net Neutrality: Corporate Censorship Is State Censorship - International Policy Digest (press release) (blog)
- Internet fumes at censorship of kissing scene in James Gunns Superman: They don't have a problem with Housefull 5 | Bollywood - Hindustan Times -... - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Listen to the Trump-Referencing Clipse Track Universal Music Allegedly Tried to Censor - Mother Jones - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- The EUs Censorship Codes Are Coming for the First Amendment - National Review - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Guest column | Book bans dont work. As a kid, I proved it. - The Washington Post - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Ira Wells, who literally wrote the book on book bans, shares his thoughts on the politics of censorship - The Globe and Mail - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Fans SLAM censorship of 33-second kissing scene in James Gunns Superman: 'They don't have a problem with - Times of India - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- After the Bombings, Iran Tightened Its Censorship. Iranians Arent Standing For It. - Council on Foreign Relations - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- All that glitters is not gold: A brief history of efforts to rebrand social media censorship - FIRE | Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Zelensky, Zuckerberg, prolifers, a trans journalist, and a gay person with a Bible. How Russia is censoring the Axios/HBO documentary - Mediazona - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Chinese censorship-busters claim Tencent is trying to kill its WeChat archive - theregister.com - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Ethereum advances toward censorship-resistant scaling with zkEVM layer-1 shift - CryptoSlate - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Peskov admitted to the existence of military censorship in Russia - - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Trump Imposes 50% Tariff on Brazil: Political Tensions and Censorship at the Center - Cryptodnes.bg - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- :Director Honey Trehan on His Film Punjab 95 and the Censorship Battle with CBFC - Frontline Magazine - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- Ready Or Not Fans Hate The Game For All The Wrong Reasons - TheGamer - July 12th, 2025 [July 12th, 2025]
- China Censors Trump's Bomb Threat on Beijing - Newsweek - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Review | How censors tried and failed to keep LGBT voices out of the movies - The Washington Post - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- UN AI summit accused of censoring criticism of Israel and big tech over Gaza war - Geneva Solutions - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- From gr*pists to nip nops, how self-censorship shapes the language of TikTok : Code Switch - NPR - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Corrido Censorship: The paradox of funding and criminalizing cartel stories - The Oakland Post - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- 'Ready or Not' Devs Unveil a Mod to Remove Censorship In-Game For a More Brutal Experience - player.one - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Centre flays X over 'censorship' claim, says platform delayed unblocking accounts - Times of India - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- Turkey blocks Grok content, becoming first country to 'censor' the AI chatbot - Middle East Eye - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- X blasts India censorship order on thousands of accounts - New Age BD - July 10th, 2025 [July 10th, 2025]
- 'JSK' Producer Suresh Kumar On Its Censorship: All Issues Began With 'L2: Empuraan' - The Hollywood Reporter India - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Some patriotic reflections on Independence Day - The Verge - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- AI, Fair Use, and the Arsenal of Democracy - RealClearDefense - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Democratic nomination for Ithaca Common Council seat decided by just 11 votes - WSKG - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- A Summer Reading List for Americas 250th Anniversary - Ash Center - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- DEEP DIVE: $500 MILLION IN MEDIA FUNDING. BUT WHO'S CALLING THE SHOTS BEHIND THE HEADLINES? Its not just censorship its coordination. In Episode 2 of... - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Emergency: The Indian cartoonist who fought the censors with a smile - BBC - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- Media in the Balkans: the rise of oligarchs - Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso Transeuropa - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- From Censorship to Fascism to Extermination: PW Talks with Will Potter - Publishers Weekly - July 8th, 2025 [July 8th, 2025]
- 'There is real fear': How Israel's attack on Iran enabled an assault on press freedoms - Middle East Eye - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Vilifying the Vylans or: How I learned to stop censoring and call for death to the BBC - Freedom News - - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- Ready Or Not Studio Reveals What Exactly Has Been Censored And It's Not A Lot - TheGamer - July 6th, 2025 [July 6th, 2025]
- The EUs Internet Law, a Blueprint for Global CensorshipIncluding on American Platforms? - The Daily Signal - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Blasphemy, Censorship, and the Future of Free Expression in Britain - Quillette - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Ready or Not Dev Releases Before-and-After Screenshots as It Battles Against Censorship Backlash and Steam Review-Bomb Campaign - IGN - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- The humanities must have a role in overseeing AI censorship - Times Higher Education - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- YouTube, Trump Having Productive Discussions Over Censorship Case - The Information - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- 'Warned Not to Talk About It': Overseas Boys' Love Censorship Is Sending Young Women to Jail - Comic Book Resources - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- China is rushing to develop its AI-powered censorship system - Global Voices - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Gov. McKee signs Freedom to Read Act into law - Rhode Island Current - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- 'Ill-conceived from the beginning': Judge ridicules Trump admin for 'slapdash' censorship of public health websites - Law and Crime News - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- How censorship affects the artistic expression in film - Times of India - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- What is The Ready or Not Censorship Controversy? Review Bombing Explained - Insider Gaming - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Self-censorship and the spiral of silence - Insight News - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Louisiana wants to censor citizen science, but residents are fighting back - News From The States - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- The many complex truths within the censoring of youth parliament - The Spinoff - July 4th, 2025 [July 4th, 2025]
- Free Speech Victory in Australia for Billboard Chris as X post censorship overturned - Alliance Defending Freedom International - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Read this: Pixar's self-censorship of Elio's queer themes may have doomed it - Yahoo - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- China is rushing to develop its AI-powered censorship system - Global Voices Advox - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- 'The censorship is a step too far': Ready or Not is getting review bombed after developers sanitise the game to adhere to stricter console standards -... - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Keep Them On The Shelf - The Progressive - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- SCOTUS Ruling Condoning Book Censorship Is a Grave Misjudgment. - GLAAD - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Read this: Pixar's self-censorship of Elio's queer themes may have doomed it - AV Club - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- How the Internet Works, and How China Censors It - ChinaFile - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- New Study from ChinaFile | The Locknet: How China Controls Its Internet and Why It Matters - Asia Society - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- The Witcher, The Bad Batch, and Cosmic Censorship - GamingTrend - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- The Censor Board Is A Back-Door For Govt To Control The Film World: Director Of Stalled Movie On Slain Punjabi Activist - article-14.com - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Censorship? Ready or Not eliminates nudity and reduces violence to hit consoles - Toy News Online - July 2nd, 2025 [July 2nd, 2025]
- Ready Or Not Will Be Censored Before Launching On Consoles, And It Could Even Affect The PC Version - TheGamer - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Nonviolence and the Battle Against Self-Censorship - Pressenza - International Press Agency - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Kneecap Defy Censorship Threats with Provocative Glastonbury Set - Consequence of Sound - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- WATCH | Joseph Maximilliam Dunnigan On How Censorship Of Books Exists Across The World, From The US To China - Outlook India - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Artist Ai Weiwei: Democracy and freedom do not necessarily enable the creation of great art - - June 29th, 2025 [June 29th, 2025]
- Baihe and Danmei: Chinese GL and BL in an Age of Censorship - Daily Kos - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- Death by a thousand cuts in Hong Kong - Index on Censorship - June 28th, 2025 [June 28th, 2025]
- In an act of political censorship, Deutsche Bank terminates publisher Mehring Verlags account - World Socialist Web Site - June 26th, 2025 [June 26th, 2025]
- The photographer using AI to reconstruct stories lost to censorship - The Verge - June 26th, 2025 [June 26th, 2025]
- Bernie Sanders Roasts Joe Rogan for Siding With Government Censorship - Cracked.com - June 26th, 2025 [June 26th, 2025]
- JCDecaux and Global accused of 'censorship' of anti-HFSS campaign - Campaign - June 26th, 2025 [June 26th, 2025]
- Emergency Films: 6 Movies That Faced Bans and Censorship in 1975 - Deccan Herald - June 26th, 2025 [June 26th, 2025]
- Hotbed of digital censorship: MAGAs war with Ireland over freedom of speech - Newstalk - June 26th, 2025 [June 26th, 2025]
- Iran-Israel war: What tools are used to censor reporting? - DW - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- FTC Comments Accuse Big Tech of Widespread Censorship - The Daily Signal - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- How we are ending Irans and all other governments power to censor online - The Hill - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- Amid Silence and Censorship, Alabama Students and Professors Reflect on a Year Under SB129 - ACLU of Alabama - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]
- Iran-Israel war: What tools are used to censor reporting? - Yahoo - June 24th, 2025 [June 24th, 2025]