Are you concerned about net neutrality? OTW Legal explains the issue, what it could mean for fans, and how you can get involved. Take action this December 2017 while the issue is still being debated! https://goo.gl/qZjCER
in recent years the internet has really become a place for people to spread non-media regulated information and for social justice movements to find their footing. i cannot stop thinking about how this is probably a huge huge reason why net neutrality has been on the chopping block so frequently lately. they want to control what we see because they want to make sure their authority isn’t questioned and they want to make sure people can’t unite. it’s scary.
With the FCC trying to strip away our Net Neutrality, think about what will be lost. Not only will your internet be controlled by cable/phone companies and your information sold to wherever said companies decide, if you are someone who loves to float away into your favorite fandoms/ships, they WILL be taken away from you. Not might be. They will.
Do you love reading fanfics? Do you love writing them? Say goodbye to that luxury if Net Neutrality is destroyed. You can especially say GOODBYE to Ao3 almost immediately. Sites like them rely on donations from fans to stay running and the FCC will chop them to shreds when they decide to block/make you pay extra to use it. Even if you’re non-american and believe you won’t be “affected” by this, honey you have a big storm coming. You can guarantee that US-bound writers will disappear and fickle out to only those who are willing to pay. Are you in a small fandom that doesn’t have a lot of creators to begin with? You won’t even have a chance. No Net Neutrality will be a direct hit to your form of relaxtion.
Do you like to watch edits? Do you slave over edits of your favs? Where are you going to see/post them when Net Neutrality is no more? Same as fanfictions, from short and quick to complex and elaborate edits, editors will be affected when they are forced to pay extra to use YouTube and Tumblr, for example. Do you sometimes lay late at night watching a marathon of edits of your favorite shows? That will be a thing of the past if the FCC ends Net Neutrality.
Are you an artist that draw your favorite ships and characters? Do you enjoy art of your favs? IT. WILL. ALL. END. IF. NET. NEUTRALITY. ENDS. Even worse if you’re a struggling artist that works off commission. You’ll be spending more money than you’re bringing in when you have to pay extra a month to use Tumblr, DeviantArt, Instagram and other sites used to upload original content. Then you’ll have to pray others who are paying extra are willing to pay for your art. Chances are, if you’re strugglin now, you won’t even last if Net Neutrality is out.
Do you download your favorite shows and movies whether it’s just to watch or create content? Where are you going to download them when sites are blocked from your internet? If you don’t have cable for whatever reason, you REALLY aren’t going to be able to catch your shows now. If you can’t afford cable, what makes you think you can afford several internet packages?
Do you like being kept up to date on what your fav is doing such as tour dates, new music, and news in general? Best believe there won’t be a such thing when you are forced to pay for Twitter, Snapchat, and other apps.
DO YOU LIKE MEMES?????!!!!!
I can go on and on but I think you get the picture. Many of us use fandoms as a way to escape from the harsh realities of our lives. If you do not join us in help fighting against these greedy out-of-touch monsters who want to take control of the internet, you will experience a true dark age that you don’t want to be apart of.
I know phone calls can make people anxious even when they want to help so welcome in ResistBot! They will be your new best friend. Just by texting RESIST to 50409, Resistbot will find out your representatives, create a message, and fax it over to their offices on your behalf within minutes to urge your reps to support Net Neutrality! AT NO CHARGE.
THERE ARE STRENGTH IN NUMBERS. PLEASE DO YOUR PART AND HELP US IN THIS WAR.
You can’t just tell people to ‘get a VPN (Virtual Private Network)’. Buying a VPN is like buying a house. It’s very very important. Having no VPN or having a ‘wrong’ one can seriously damage your life. Especially for Americans because their privacy laws are garbage. I am going to try explain why you should get a VPN but bare with me, I am from Germany and my English is far from perfect.
Let’s start with a simple test. Click this link here: https://whatismyipaddress.com/ It will tell your IP adres, your ISP (internet service provider), and your location. The location might not be very accurate, but then again, it’s just a simple website. Imagine what the government can do!
So basically, everyone can find out where you live. But there is more danger. Your ISP. Your ISP logs your every move online and they are required to keep it in case the government wants access to it (or if a 3rd party wants to buy your data (yikes). They have everything. What websites you visit. How long you stay on a website. What you download. Your search terms. European laws are more subtle on this but if you are from the US you are #@*#&, especially because Trump doesn’t support the open internet. It’s scary but maybe in the future you can’t get a job because the recruiter knows your searched on ‘how to deal with depression’ or anythings else that’s supposed to be private because it’s your f*cking right. Or you get a $100k fine because you pirated a movie 15 years ago. You need a VPN. You’re dumb for not using one. but what does a VPN do?
A VPN encrypts all your data so if it were be intercepted no one can ‘crack the code’ and damage your privacy.
Usually being online goes like this (simplified): Your computer —-> ISP (—–> keeps data —–> sells it)
But with a VPN it goes like: Your computer —–> VPN (encrypts data)—–> ISP (ISP can’t see shit)
Furthermore, a VPN hides your IP address and location by giving you another IP address located in Spain for example (you can often choose from a list and change as many times as you want).
Now that you know why you should get a VPN and what is does it is important to educate yourself because people often choose the wrong VPN. VPN providers are also businesses and have to obey the law. If you choose a VPN provider located in the US then you are throwing your money away because the laws in the US shits on your privacy. If the US gov wants the provider to give all their logs they have to obey. The ISP still can’t see what you are doing online and sell your data but the US gov can interfere with your VPN provider so NEVER CHOOSE A PROVIDER LOCATED IN THE US.
I just wanted to make that very clear so my followers don’t buy false security.
There is still more danger! Who says your VPN provider isn’t selling your data? You need to check their logging policy. Do they keep logs? If yes, what for? For how long do they keep them? Tip: Choose a provider who doesn’t keep logs
More about law The US is part of the Five Eyes program (the worst):
The Five Eyes, often abbreviated as FVEY, is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. These countries are bound by the multilateral UKUSA Agreement, a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence (source)
There is also a Nine Eyes (bit better) and Fourteen Eyes Program (better). You don’t want a VPN provider who is located in one the Five Eyes countries. If you had to choose go for a provider located in a country that’s part of the Fourteen Eyes Program or even better, go for a country that isn’t part of any program!
I know this is a shitty explanation and please pardon my english but now it’s time to do your own research. Take your privacy seriously. Maybe WWIII breaks out and you get killed for liking the ‘wrong’ FB-page.
Make sure that your future VPN provider both has green boxes for Privacy Jurisdiction and Privacy Logging.
I recommend ovpn.se and trust.zone. ovpn is located in Sweden so they are part of the 14 Eyes Program and they keep minimal logs. Their business ethics, however, are alright.
Trustzone is located in the Seychelles. No country can interfere and their privacy jurisdiction is the best you can get. The US want your data but needs to get it from Trustzone? The Seychelles will simply give them the finger and wave them goodbye. However, this makes this provider very appealing for people who torrent and criminals because they keep no logs (and that is how it shoud be) Also, there are almost no marketing efforts so this provider is one the cheapest)
Also, often providers such as ExpressVPN are being called ‘The Best’ on websites about VPNs but know that this is just marketing which also makes those provider more expensive (and they too shit on your privacy)
This must be the worst article you have ever read but please, please take your privacy very seriously.
I am also with Trustzone but I think you forgot to explain one of it’s most important features. It protects you when you are using someone else’s Wi-Fi. If you are at Starbucks and you use their Wi-Fi your privacy is at risk. Anyone with ill intentions could steal your information. Especially if you are using an unsecured Wi-Fi hotspot. With a VPN your data gets encrypted so no one can steal it.
Wait, what’s going, on? Did trump destroy internet privacy with a bill or something? Where’s the news? Oh wait, why am I getting visions of Alex Jones and selling water purifiers?
He hasn’t yet but he says he wants to. And if he is serious about it it would be really easy to do. Since all our data is already recorded, as the person above explained.
Trump wants more surveillance of Muslim Americans. This in a country where internet privacy is already close to non-existent.
To all my friends in the US, please read this entire post. Making everyone aware of VPNs is going to be my mission. Your privacy matters. Please reblog this post.
Don’t tell me you just wanted to scroll past this. Stop looking at pictures of cats for a moment, okay? Don’t you realize how important this is? This is dangerous! ‘America, the best FREE country in the world’ my ass.
With this new law your ISP can sell your Internet history which could include passwords, usernames, religion, credit card numbers, race and much more to the highest bidder. So here is what I want you to do.
You are going to read the whole thing and before you think ’this is so important. Let me reblog this real quick and go back to admiring cats again-’ NO! Don’t reblog this. Take action first. Then reblog. Sign up for a free trial! Trust.Zone offers one (here). Yes. It might be difficult to set up a VPN for some people. But is that going to stop you from protecting yourself and your family? 30 minutes. 30 minutes is all that it takes. 5 if you know how to install software. The problem with some of you is that you see ‘difficult’ as something negative. I want you to see difficult differently. I need you to push through this stuff. You are going to protect yourself. There is nothing negative about that.
VPNs are fun and costsaving too! A VPN bypasses geographical restrictions so you can access websites you normally can’t or you could start Netflix’s one month free trial over and over again- forever. And it’s legal! (unless you use it to buy weapons etc.,)
Don’t tell yourself that you are too tired and that you will do this tomorrow. Because that isn’t going to happen and you know it. You have to do this right now. You only have to click on it.
Don’t let this/shit/life just happen to you. Take yourself seriously. Get a VPN.
Privacy is not a privilege, it’s a fundamental human right
This isn’t my type of post but Net Neutrality is so important.
Forget your page’s aesthetic, share this with everyone you know. Without Net Neutrality, the internet itself would change.
Companies would be able to charge websites if they want them to load faster than others on your computer. This means that they would purposefully bottleneck speeds on every website that doesn’t have the funding to pay for it faster speed. There’s NO reason for this. Are you a small business with a website and can’t afford to pay enough to get faster speeds? Too bad. Are you someone with a personal blog? Slow page loading. Do you want to view a website written by a nonprofit organization for your school project? You’ll have to wait until the page loads because, since they’re nonprofit, they can’t afford to pay enough to cable companies so that their page loads faster.
An alternative to this would be having to pay for faster internet. Internet service should be priced by usage, not speed. For home internet, unlimited use isn’t all that expensive so it’s really common. You wouldn’t want to pay extra for more speed.
This would possibly affect the way that the internet works on other devices such as your phone, gaming system, laptop, tablet, etc.
We NEED Net Neutrality.
If a company doesn’t agree with a specific website, they could purposefully limit traffic to their site. This would be censorship, something that nobody likes.
There are many other reason as to why you should protect Net Neutrality.
This is an issue whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, Left-wing, Right-wing, young, old, male, female, rich, poor, etc.
EVERYONE SHOULD ADVOCATE FOR NET NEUTRALITY.
^
Guys, also think about he wider costs. Every business, school, hospital, pharmacy, first responder, government service—every single one uses the Internet. So, yes, the individual user will pay more for access, but so will the institutional users. The thing is, the institutional users aren’t just going to eat the increase in costs. They will pass them on to the consumer. They always do.
Education, healthcare, every single product and service, plus your local, state, and Federal taxes, will all GO UP.
Losing net neutrality will affect the cost of every single product and service offered in this country. Every. Single. One.
The FCC wants to make the internet suck. Suck big giant hairy smelly balls. I’m not sure many people realize how bad they want to make the internet. Companies could make you pay extra for visiting certain sites. If they are in competition with Netflix, your ISP could block Netflix all together. It’s super bad.
This is really important. Congress is the only thing that can stop this. Which probably means we’re screwed, but I would like you to do me a favor anyway.
Figure out who represents you. Send them a message. Give them a call. Send them a fax (yes this really works). Mail them a postcard. Do all of these things if you have the time. Don’t let your apathy take over. We need to find our willpower and make ourselves heard. Tell them Net Neutrality is good. The FCC can suck it. Keep our internet free from corporate tampering. Don’t let the internet suck balls. Pleeeease.
today is Nov. 15. the FCC, under chairman Ajit Pai, will not listen to the public despite millions of comments in support of net neutrality. They are going to try their hardest to kill net neutrality, which in turn will kill the internet, which in turn will help eradicate democracy. it won’t just affect Americans, it has the potential to affect the entire internet, something we ALL use daily. you can bet your ass other countries will see america doing this, and use it as an excuse to do it in their own countries.
this is what buying a plan without net neutrality looks like there:
you have to pay MORE for features you’re already guaranteed to have under net neutrality. and in america, you already know how expensive everything is.
democrats AND republicans both want net neutrality. advocacy groups in touch with congress have said that if your members of congress receive calls from you, they are more encouraged and more likely to take action to stop Pai’s plan to gut net neutrality. after Nov. 22, it will be MUCH HARDER to convince your member of congress.
hey guys, please reblog this version and don’t forget to call!!! if you are nervous about calling, you can use resistbot to send faxes to your reps and thestance appto pre-record your message so you won’t have to speak to anyone. (available in both google play and app store)
Question of Smoke 