Slashdot Mirror


YouTube Stars Defend Net Neutrality In Open Letter To the FCC (theverge.com)

More than 100 YouTube creators from the Internet Creators Guild have signed an open letter to the FCC calling on the agency to keep strong net neutrality protections. "Our rapidly growing industry employs hundreds of thousands of people and yet it barely existed more than a decade ago," reads the letter. "As creators in this fast-moving industry, changes to the existing Net Neutrality rules would have an outsized impact on our field and jeopardize our livelihood." The Verge reports: The letter has been signed by major names in the YouTube community, such as the Fine Brothers. In total, the guild says, the letter represents video creators with an audience of more than 150 million people. The YouTube creators directly address FCC chairman Ajit Pai in the letter. The letter argues that the removal of protections would lead to "the inevitable creation of fast lanes that would privilege the large media companies that can afford to pay for such service," putting smaller media creators in danger. "We strongly urge you to oppose anything that would threaten this level playing field," the letter from video makers concludes. "The stakes are simply too high for our democracy, culture, and economy."

2 of 48 comments (clear)

  1. Net Neutrality in a nutshell by OrangeTide · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Net Neutrality means Comcast and AT&T don't automatically get a cut of Netflix's subscription revenue and Google's ad revenue.

    That's how I would sum it up (I'm a cynic). And arguments can be made either way.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  2. Re:Possibly the wrong audience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "All Net Neutrality means is this: ALL DATA MUST BE TREATED EQUALLY."

    No, that's not what it means. What it means is that all data of a given type must be treated equally regardless of its source or destination. It means all voip data must be treated the same -- you can't give preference to voip traffic to a service you own or partner with over another service you don't.

    You absolutely CAN prioritize ALL VOIP traffic above web traffic and ALL web traffic above bittorrent if you like. Net neutrality is about making sure all service PROVIDERS are treated equally, not that all SERVICE TYPES are treated the same.

    you better mother fucking bet that the bits being transmitted across the country for life saving surgery need to be fucking PRIORITIZED OVER SOMEONE'S FUCKING EMAIL OR YOUTUBE VIDEO.

    Yes and NOBODY disagrees with that.

    Net neutrality ensures that it doesn't matter which surgeon is giving you life saving surgery; because all remote surgery traffic is top priority; and you won't get your traffic throttled if you don't use the surgery provider your ISP owns shares in.