but in spite of it.
In recent months, one of the United States’ most important debates has revolved around the broad concept of Net Neutrality (NN). Without delving into the technicalities, the concept of NN is that internet service providers (ISPs) cannot privilege or restrict internet data. Basically, once you’ve purchased your internet package with the requisite bandwidth parameters, your ISP cannot make your access to a certain site easier or harder, faster or slower.
But with developments in the United States, NN appears to be on its way out, which will give ISPs much greater leeway in how they can shape people’s internet experience. For instance, an ISP can form an official partnership with a streaming service, and in so doing, could restrict or slowdown access to all other streaming services. Without hyperbole, American internet users could in the near future see Verizon partner with Amazon Prime, making it harder for the former’s customers to use Netflix. More seriously, ISP’s could—based on financial or ideological objectives—prevent or promote access to certain digital news outlets. In such an environment, there’s nothing to stop American ISPs from systematically restricting access to strident left-wing journalism, including from this very website.
Here’s the crux of the issue: many people see capitalism as synonymous with the free market. But what this episode has shown us, more than anything else, is that the free flow of information exists not because of capitalism, but in spite of it. Capitalism is not a system of free exchange; rather, it is a system of profit maximization for those who own the capital. In some cases this may coincide with what are understood as free markets, but in a great many cases capitalists profit most by restricting the freedom of others, be it their workers, their consumers, or democratic institutions.
The reality is that if we allow major companies even more discretion in how they shape the internet, we will see an aggregate decline in freedom for the average internet user. But the solution isn’t only the reversal of the United States’ current course away from NN, but an increased realization that the internet in our modern era must be seen—and treated—as a basic utility, the access to which should be seen as fundamental, and the control of which should be wrought through the state, and not private corporations. We must—in simple terms—nationalize and democratize the internet.
As a baseline, the public should own the infrastructure that provides internet access, and should either directly own, or substantively control, the companies that currently act as ISPs. But over the longer term, it may need to go farther than that. One concept the NN debate has outlined is how a few powerful companies can induce the government to introduce a policy so wrong-headed that it benefits virtually no one but those companies. Essentially, this highlights the fatal limitations of liberal democratic institutions without the presence of economic democracy.
It also shows plainly that the issues with the internet go beyond service providers and reach to some of the largest players like Facebook, Amazon, and Google, who control such a substantive proportion of their respective market shares that they are part of a narrow digital oligopoly. They have such power that they collect personal data on a mass scale, hold cities at ransom in the hopes of landing their warehouses, and propose to mould our public spaces using privately-owned and designed algorithms.
more
https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/net-neutrality-and-the-socialist-moment
In recent months, one of the United States’ most important debates has revolved around the broad concept of Net Neutrality (NN). Without delving into the technicalities, the concept of NN is that internet service providers (ISPs) cannot privilege or restrict internet data. Basically, once you’ve purchased your internet package with the requisite bandwidth parameters, your ISP cannot make your access to a certain site easier or harder, faster or slower.
But with developments in the United States, NN appears to be on its way out, which will give ISPs much greater leeway in how they can shape people’s internet experience. For instance, an ISP can form an official partnership with a streaming service, and in so doing, could restrict or slowdown access to all other streaming services. Without hyperbole, American internet users could in the near future see Verizon partner with Amazon Prime, making it harder for the former’s customers to use Netflix. More seriously, ISP’s could—based on financial or ideological objectives—prevent or promote access to certain digital news outlets. In such an environment, there’s nothing to stop American ISPs from systematically restricting access to strident left-wing journalism, including from this very website.
Here’s the crux of the issue: many people see capitalism as synonymous with the free market. But what this episode has shown us, more than anything else, is that the free flow of information exists not because of capitalism, but in spite of it. Capitalism is not a system of free exchange; rather, it is a system of profit maximization for those who own the capital. In some cases this may coincide with what are understood as free markets, but in a great many cases capitalists profit most by restricting the freedom of others, be it their workers, their consumers, or democratic institutions.
The reality is that if we allow major companies even more discretion in how they shape the internet, we will see an aggregate decline in freedom for the average internet user. But the solution isn’t only the reversal of the United States’ current course away from NN, but an increased realization that the internet in our modern era must be seen—and treated—as a basic utility, the access to which should be seen as fundamental, and the control of which should be wrought through the state, and not private corporations. We must—in simple terms—nationalize and democratize the internet.
As a baseline, the public should own the infrastructure that provides internet access, and should either directly own, or substantively control, the companies that currently act as ISPs. But over the longer term, it may need to go farther than that. One concept the NN debate has outlined is how a few powerful companies can induce the government to introduce a policy so wrong-headed that it benefits virtually no one but those companies. Essentially, this highlights the fatal limitations of liberal democratic institutions without the presence of economic democracy.
It also shows plainly that the issues with the internet go beyond service providers and reach to some of the largest players like Facebook, Amazon, and Google, who control such a substantive proportion of their respective market shares that they are part of a narrow digital oligopoly. They have such power that they collect personal data on a mass scale, hold cities at ransom in the hopes of landing their warehouses, and propose to mould our public spaces using privately-owned and designed algorithms.
more
https://canadiandimension.com/articles/view/net-neutrality-and-the-socialist-moment