by Davey D

The man pictured above is a serious enemy to the masses. His name is Ajit Pai and he heads the FCC. He led the charge to strip the internet of net neutrality protections, and you will soon see drastic changes that will disenfranchise and strip power from millions of people who depend upon on the internet.

For those who are unfamiliar, net neutrality works like this. It is what makes the Internet such a powerful platform. It’s a democratizing aspect. If I write an article and post it up on my website and the New York Times writes an article and posts it up on their website, we are all one click away for any user wishing to access our material.

The million-dollar company and the poor blogger are accessible by all. This clown pictured here started out as a lawyer for Verizon who spent close to a billion dollars to get rid of net neutrality.

Ajit Pai and the big telecoms like Verizon, Comcast, AT&T and others want the internet to be such that the New York Times would be one click away while the rest of us would be four or five or even 10 clicks away. He wants to create a situation where those telecoms could actually refuse to even allow your content to be accessible at all.

Couple that with the fact that many of these telecoms have their own content and bloggers they would be allowed to favor while slowing down or eliminating access to any of ours.

The man pictured above is a serious enemy to the masses. His name is Ajit Pai and he heads the FCC. He led the charge to strip the internet of net neutrality protections, and you will soon see drastic changes that will disenfranchise and strip power from millions of people who depend upon on the internet.

Pai also wants to create a situation where the telecoms can treat the internet like cable TV, so you might have to spend extra money if you want to have access to social media sites or streaming sites. You might have to pay extra if you want access to music sites. This would be on top of whatever those companies charge. So one might have to pay AT&T extra money to have access to Netflix or YouTube.

The excuse given for pushing to end net neutrality is the belief that we should not have regulations. The long term impact is to keep the ability to communicate to the masses in the hands of a few who are rich, powerful and in position to afford full access.

The folks who will feel the impact first will be independent artists, deejays and other creative folks who rely upon the internet. Folks who run small businesses who depend upon the internet will feel the pinch. In short there will be a lot of upending. Those who use the internet to organize and bring attention to key issues will be azzed out.

The excuse given for pushing to end net neutrality is the belief that we should not have regulations. The long term impact is to keep the ability to communicate to the masses in the hands of a few who are rich, powerful and in position to afford full access.

We are talking consolidation 3.0. This is the ultimate gentrification move, despite the fact that Congress received more than a million phone calls and tens of millions of emails, and wide-reaching polls showed that the majority of Americans opposed the repeal.

Lastly with respect to FCC Chair Ajit Pai, here’s a guy who has used his Brown skin and being “hip” as a way to push through. He talks a good game about being a man of color from the community and then tries to sell folks on the notion that net neutrality protections have been holding “us” back.

It’s akin to a Black man walking into City Hall and saying police brutality is a good thing for the community. Dude just four days ago joked about being a shill for the telecoms so he could get rid of net neutrality.

Davey D can be reached at mrdaveyd@gmail.com or on Facebook. Visit his website, Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner, and his blog, Hip Hop and Politics, and listen to him weekdays at 4 p.m. on KPFA’s Hard Knock Radio.

Ajit Pai posted this video on the eve of the net neutrality vote.