You’ve probably heard the term “net neutrality” a lot over the past few months (or even years), and if you’re unsure what it means, or just have a vague idea, we dove into the topic and the current state of it at length a few months ago. Basically, net neutrality means that internet users can’t be charged more for access or have the quality of their online experience hampered based on the sites or services they’re using, where they’re from, and other discriminatory things like that. It’s also good for websites and content providers, whose content can’t be squeezed out or silenced because they don’t have connections with service providers or things like that.
The reason it’s been a point of serious conversation recently, as John Oliver clearly and effectively explained on Last Week Tonight about a month ago, is because regulations that protect net neutrality were recently rolled back. A lot of your favorite websites aren’t thrilled about that, so now they’re banding together in hopes that they can inspire some change or at least bring awareness to the issue. Companies like Amazon, Reddit, Vimeo and Kickstarter are participating in a day of action to save net neutrality on July 12 (via Variety).When that day comes, these and other sites will use their platforms to bring awareness to the net neutrality issue and hopefully mobilize users to make their voices heard and make policymakers realize that net neutrality is an important foundation of the modern internet.
“Net neutrality made it possible for Vimeo, along with countless other startups, to innovate and thrive,” Vimeo General Counsel Michael Cheah said in a statement. “Vimeo will proudly join our fellow tech brethren to rally Internet users nationwide to demand strong net neutrality rules to prevent ISPs from manipulating Internet traffic.”
We don’t know yet exactly what these sites will be doing on the 12th, but if you enjoy seeing Nerdist and your other favorite websites do exactly what they want to do whenever they want to do it, it would be in your best interest to participate however you can.
Featured image: SamJJordan/Flickr
