Net Neutrality and the ISP Boogieman

My case study was a semi-dramatic rant about how internet service providers are coming to steal our rights and destroy the freedom of the internet. Looking back on it, I may have gone a little too hard in the paint, but I think the points I made are still very valid. When answering the question "who controls the media" it is very important to ask who controls the means of access to media. The internet has come a long way from its humble beginnings in the 1990s, and it is growing and changing more rapidly then our regulations can keep up with. The internet represents the bleeding edge of society and culture, and is becoming (if it is not already) the centerpiece of tomorrow's society. It goes without saying that whoever control the internet will have a lot of power moving forward, and I for one don't feel warm and fuzzy about that controller being large corporations. As I discussed in my presentation, the current chairman of the FCC Ajit V. Pai, represents a very suspicious element in the fight for a free internet. A cursory glance at his back story reveals some very conflicting work (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajit_V._Pai, yes this is a wikipedia link, please have mercy). He served on the Justice Department's antitrust division, and then went to work for telecom giant Verizon, who you may know from such recent foibles as https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/07/verizon-wireless-apparently-throttles-streaming-video-to-10mbps/. Maybe Pai is a cool guy, and has all of our interests at heart. But I get a little suspicious when people who work in the private sector move on to oversee the same industry they worked in, and will likely return to after their new 5 year term is up. But I'll leave the judgment up to you.