15 December 2017 — Global Research
By Julia Conley, December 15, 2017
The nonpartisan First Amendment advocacy group Free Press vowed to take the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to court Thursday after the Republican-controlled panel moved to gut net neutrality protections that prohibit internet service providers (ISPs) from charging for and discriminating against content, in a 3-2 vote along party lines.
By Stephen Lendman, December 15, 2017
Without equal access online, ISP giants Comcast, Charter, AT&T, Verizon, Cox and others can establish toll roads or premium lanes, charge extra for speed and free and easy access, control content, as well as stifle dissent and independent thought.
We Saved Net Neutrality Once. We Can Do It Again
By Frances Moore Lappé and Adam Eichen, December 14, 2017
If you’ve heard the term “net neutrality,” is it something you imagine only internet fanatics can grasp? Not at all. It simply refers to baseline protection ensuring that no internet service provider can “interfere with or block web traffic, or favor their own services at the expense of smaller rivals.” As such, it is integral to democratic dialogue. To abolish it, explains Craig Aaron, president and CEO of the media advocacy group Free Press, “would end the open nature of the internet and leave activists, media makers and all the rest of us at the mercy of the biggest phone and cable companies.”
“Net Neutrality”: FCC Chairman Pai Attempts to Rewrite the Legal History of a Bogus Agreement
By Free Press, December 12, 2017
If the FCC adopts Pai’s proposal to overturn these rules, internet users will be exposed to blocking, throttling and paid prioritization of online content by the handful of ISPs that control access in the United States.
Google Hiring 10,000 Reviewers to Censor YouTube Content
By Zaida Green, December 10, 2017
Google is escalating its campaign of internet censorship, announcing that it will expand its workforce of human censors to over 10,000, the internet giant announced on December 4. The censors’ primary focus will be videos and other content on YouTube, its video-sharing platform, but will work across Google to censor content and train its automated systems, which remove videos at a rate four times faster than its human employees.
Social Media is A Tool of the CIA: “Facebook, Google and Other Social Media Used to Spy on People”
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, December 14, 2017
Social Media and Search engines are being used to Spy on Americans! But not only on Americans. The process of personal data collection is worldwide. What is at stake, however, is not only the issue of “Privacy”. The online search engines also constitute an instrument of online media censorship.
Net Neutrality Repeal Is Only Part of Trump’s Surrender to Corporate Media
By Reed Richardson, December 15, 2017
Though the agency has always enjoyed a cozy relationship with the industries it regulates, ever since the Trump administration arrived in Washington, the FCC’s mission to preserve the public commons has been threatened, assaulted and torn asunder. And like a bad horror movie cliché, these calls to eviscerate the FCC have been coming from inside the agency.
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https://www.globalresearch.ca/selected-articles-is-it-the-demise-of-online-digital-democracy/5622891
The New Dark Age 