Net neutrality is under attack everywhere and it is perhaps the biggest techno-crisis we have ever faced. The violation of net neutrality promises to undermine not only our economy and ability to innovate, but our personal freedom as well. Anyone who has followed
my work over at CBC knows this is a topic I'm very passionate about because I believe strongly that the internet - easily the most empowering and equalizing force man has ever come up with - is something that needs to protected from the various forces who are looking to abuse it, change it to their ends, or limit it.
The problem is, most people don't know what net neutrality is. Moreover, violation of it is like cancer - it's terrible when you hear about it happening to other people, but it only really, really sucks when it happens to you. Thanks to my trip over to the UK last week, I now have my own personal tale of woe to add to my distaste for those who are looking to screw with the internet.

First up, although definitions differ, net neutrality is
generally defined as allowing the internet to remain free from interference by outside parties, whether they be service providers or governments. Violations of this principle usually come in the form of blocking or slowing of certain websites or functions. Here in Canada, the best two examples are Telus
blocking access to a locked-out telecom union's website back in 2005, and Bell's and Rogers'
ongoing slowing - or "throttling" - of peer-to-peer services such as BitTorrent.
One similar U.S. example was last year's peer-to-peer blocking by cable provider Comcast. Regulators
declared the act a violation of net neutrality and promptly ordered the company to cease and desist. (While not exactly the same thing, our regulators have thus far given Bell and Rogers a free pass to continue throttling.) I've also mentioned in this blog other violations, including in and , where authorities are either actively blocking access to certain websites or are trying to implement a system that will do so. Interestingly, China - the king of net non-neutrality - has been in the news recently for a new filter, called Green Dam, that was to have mandatory installation on all computers sold in the country. Green Dam goes beyond simply filtering websites - it apparently also crashes your computer if you type certain banned phrases, like "Falun Gong." The is that China is actually backing down on forcing people to use the software because of widespread opposition, marking perhaps the first real net neutrality victory there that I can recall.
Not to be outdone, service providers in the United Kingdom are also doing their share to violate people's rights on the internet there. During my visit, I was pleasantly surprised to find a plethora of freely available wi-fi. One particular provider,
The Cloud, had service in just about every fast-food chain. I was horrified, however, when I logged in and tried to access this blog, only to see a message saying that access was blocked because I'm apparently running an "adult" site. Well, I flipped! I've purposely kept this site very clean and PG-rated for this very purpose, to avoid possibly being branded an "adult" site and blocked by ISPs. In fact, you won't find boobs anywhere on this site, with the exception of the title and URL, which I'm guessing is enough to flag it for The Cloud. I've sent off an email to the ISP's support people explaining that my blog is not an adult site, that sex and pornography are only TALKED about here, and that it should be removed from their black list, but I've yet to receive a response (no surprise).
This is exactly the sort of slippery slope I've mentioned before. You can't ban porn outright on the internet because you will have cases like this. Websites that seek to foster some sort of half-intelligent discourse on the subject will be lumped in with sites like sheepfuckers.com (I made that one up). Are we in the developed world so prudish that we would ban the very discussion of sex? And if the filtering software is strong enough, it might even pick up a term like "sheepfuckers" and block the website on those grounds. And then what? Do we start blocking websites for using bad language? As I've said before, let the ass-backwards countries like Afghanistan block porn - in the free, developed world, we need to deal with it more intelligently. We need a solid age verification system to keep it away from the kiddies, but the outright blocking of any kind of websites is a very big threat to our fundamental freedom. As a Chinese blogger said in the about Green Dam, "People, including myself, have argued strongly that while parental controls are useful, picking which one to use must be a personal choice." Exactly. If China is starting to get it, why can't we?
UPDATE: Jesse Brown talks about net neutrality on his new Search Engine podcast. Check it out
here. He says the net neutrality movement in Canada is making a big mistake by aligning itself with the far left. I couldn't agree more.
UPDATE 2: In response to the excellent question below from Mr. Matt Shepherd (whose
blog and comic book work I fully endorse, by the way), here's how you can support net neutrality in Canada. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is currently reviewing the whole issue of neutrality and you can submit your comments by clicking here. Surprise, surprise, the CRTC hasn't exactly made the process easy so once you're on the site, select "Part VII / PN " from the drop down list and then click "Next." In the box entitled "Subject," type in "CRTC File #:8662-P8-200907727," then enter any thoughts you may have in the box titled "Description/Comments/Questions." You can also add any attachments you want. Don't forget to click next. The deadline is
JUNE 22 so don't dawdle! You can also find out more about the net neutrality movement in Canada by going to saveournet.ca, which is the lefty-aligned organization Jesse mentioned above. In the United States, the
Free Press is a major voice in the battle for net neutrality as is the
Open Internet Coalition, which counts Google among its members.