Courtesy of the 463, this article by Daniel Reilly in Salon gives a longish look at the net neutrality issue. Although it plays up pro-net neutrality advocates as a “rag-tag army of grass-roots” soliders (as opposed to the cable industry, which claims it was “born of a rag-tag group of dreamers”), it’s a pretty balanced recap of the debate so far.
What’s interesting is the mention of a student-made video that appeared on YouTube in mid-August. The video features college students sitting in front of a web cam talking about the dangers of having an Internet without net neutrality. It took little more than an hour for 21-year old Ben Going to make the video on his own volition and with no prompting from pro-net neutrality groups.
The black-and-white video is a relative hit, garnering 350,000 views as of last week, compared to only 200,000 views of the now-famed “macaca” video of Virginia Senator George Allen calling a man of Indian descent the racial slur. Overstating it a bit, SaveTheInternet.com’s Ben Scott says the video “is doing the work of 30 full-time communications professionals.”
Not quite, but he has a point. The power to pitch and persuade, particularly on issues of political or social importance (getting people to part with their money is a little harder), is definitely shifting to “the people” as cheap-to-make videos pop up all over the web. SaveTheInternet has a full page of YouTube videos here (some of which are segments of TV programs) that support the cause.
(Less effective but more amusing are the songs written to promote net neutrality. SaveTheInternet has a page devoted to these songs, including one that plays automatically entitled “G-d Save The Internet.”)
Update: Industry-backed group HandsOffTheNet has posted a response to the Salon piece that picks apart several assertions in the article. They also chastise young Ben Going for his video.
We admire the initiative of the video-maker Ben Going, but that doesn’t make his argument correct. Indeed, his video is actually free of any arguments. Style over substance may play well in Hollywood, but when far-reaching new government regulations are on the horizon, facts matter more than emotion.
(Hat tip to Marie at The Drop.)
Cynthia Brumfield at 6:54 AM|Comments(0)
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