You may notice the warning when loading my website.  I installed a plugin that graphically mimics what will most likely happen to many websites and internet services when the proposals are signed into law by the FCC.

Allowing cash-rich companies to pay for faster priority of their web traffic will have a hugely detrimental affect on entrepreneurship.  Fade to August 2003, when MySpace was founded.  It would forever change the landscape of the internet even before it was dethroned by Facebook.  In a world without net neutrality, it would have been easy for a competitor like Friendster, assuming they had more money, to throw that money at paying for higher priority routing of their network traffic.  And where does that leave the company that pays?   With less money to invest in other operations, their product also suffers.

I’m extremely disappointed that Obama went back on his campaign promise on this.

From the Time article here:

“I will take a backseat to no one in my commitment to network neutrality,” Obama told a crowd at Google in 2008. “Because once providers start to privilege some applications or websites over others then the smaller voices get squeezed out and we all lose.”

At a 2007 campaign forum, he went so far as to specifically promise that his Federal Communications Commission appointments would defend the principle of a “level playing field for whoever has the best idea.” “As president, I am going to make sure that that is the principle that my FCC commissioners are applying as we move forward,” he said.

But on Thursday, the President made no public statement when three Democrats he appointed to the FCC voted to move forward with a plan to allow broadband carriers to provide an exclusive “fast lane” to commercial companies that pay extra fees to get their content transmitted online. Instead, White House aides released a press release distancing the President from the decision.