Donald Trumps Ajit (Pai)-prop

[babylonsister]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/donald_trumps_ajit_pai-prop_20170511

Donald Trump’s Ajit (Pai)-prop
Posted on May 11, 2017

By Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan

snip//

Behind the headline-grabbing chaos, though, decades of progressive policy achievements are being quietly undone by the army of loyalists that Trump is assembling around him. Over at the Federal Communications Commission, for example, newly installed Chairman Ajit Pai is doing everything he can to eliminate rules protecting net neutrality on the internet, while allowing big, pro-Trump broadcasters to further consolidate. This will lead to increasingly restricted democratic dialogue in our society, further strengthening Trump’s grip on power.

Net neutrality is described by the media advocacy organization Free Press as “the First Amendment of the internet.” It describes a fundamental feature of the internet, allowing information to flow freely and equally over the web, regardless of its content. For example, whether you want to view web content from the National Rifle Association or the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the site you are seeking will load equally quickly. The ISPs are not allowed to favor one site over another.

Take another example: Many people watch video on the internet using Netflix. But imagine an ISP with ownership interest in another, competing service deciding to slow down Netflix in order to frustrate those users and drive them to its service. With strictly enforced net neutrality rules, this type of conduct would be illegal. In the internet that Ajit Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, is trying to construct, with net neutrality rules scrapped, it would likely become the norm. Extremely well-funded, incumbent sites would dominate, while smaller, startup web ventures would find it impossible to compete. The internet’s dynamism would disappear.

To take the hypotheticals one step further, imagine an activist website dedicated to organizing resistance to President Trump’s immigrant ban. Such a site, now, would be freely accessible. But without the protection of net neutrality, there would be nothing to stop an ISP from slowing down traffic to and from the site, rendering it useless.


snip//

President Trump knows how to use the mass media, and social media, to manipulate public opinion and sway voters. But Trump, and appointees like Ajit Pai, are learning that there is a force more powerful: organized people, taking to the streets. Trump can fire individuals who threaten his power, like James Comey. But he can’t fire a movement.

[pangaia]

1. NET-NEUTRALITY is one of THE most important issues.

because to a great degree, it is our voice!!