No, this is not a post about Alabama Football, but it is a post about sports in general. How many sports articles do you read online weekly? Daily? Per season? How often do sports articles help you through the monotony of the offseason?
If you answered at least ‘one’ to any of those questions, very soon you could start being charged for doing that. In fact, you will get charged extra for everything you do online, and that extends way beyond sports. Social media, news sites, YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and yes, even Google, will cost you extra to visit.
Why?
Because as of next month, the FCC – led by chairman Ajit Pai – are expected to vote on what is called Net Neutrality. What that means is, essentially, the freedom of the internet. We use our phones, tablets, and computers everyday without much of a second thought. It has become a way of life for most Americans, and even for most of the world. Should the FCC choose to ban Net Neutrality, it would then become legal for internet-providers to charge for specific websites. Here is an example of what this may look like:
This goes completely against the free market, and is only an ugly attempt at a money grab by the FCC and the big Internet Service Providers (ISPs). To make matters worse, Americans do not get to vote on this as it is strictly an FCC appointed five-person panel that will vote for or against it.
A multitude of major sports site, Touchdown Alabama included, will be hugely impacted by these changes. If you value your freedom to read what you choose to read, and not just what the monopolies of the industry feed you, you must take a stand.
So, what can you do?
The lovely folks on the internet – namely Reddit – have put forth a lot of effort to bring as much attention as possible to the matter. In doing so, they have also developed a program called the ‘Resistbot’ that you can text. It will walk you through the steps of creating a fax/letter to your local representatives, and even delivers it for you. All you have to do is text ‘resist’ to 50409 and follow the steps it gives you.
What can I do to make an even bigger impact?
Simply put, there are a handful of ways to create bigger waves. The most important thing we can all do is Call Your Representatives! The only way our voice gets heard is if we let our folks in office know we will not vote them back in without their support on the matter. Again, another website has made this as easy as has ever been:
Website Link to Contact your Representatives
This is not a joke, this is not a drill, and unless you have a desire to spend more money for what will become much slower internet speeds, you need to react and do all that you can to fight it. if you have Twitter, you can also tweet at everyone involved – including the President of the United States himself.
Fans of all sports need to come together and show their voices to those in charge of this country before a freedom is taken away.
