The efforts of SaveTheInternet.com to generate some catchy videos promoting the cause of net neutrality is beginning to pay off. IP Democracy pointed to the off-beat and hilarious Ask A Ninja Special Delivery 4 “Net Neutrality” from the AskANinja.com folks (”You got questions, Ninja got answers”). We’ve already seen some more traditional political style videos championing net neutrality, but the Ninja bit feels like it has the potential to see a huge viral spread around the net.
It get worse. The telecoms have created an astroturfing organization called Hands Off the Internet, complete with a childish flash video explaining the dangers of net neutrality: http://www.dontregulate.org/
Ninja is funny, yes. But too one-sided. It's a much more nuanced debate than he makes it out to be, and that's disappointing. I'd rather see this kind of humor used to explain the whole thing and poke fun at both sides. Especially considering this is Content Providers vs. the Pipe Owners, i.e. Big Business vs. Big Business. I might even go so far as to call it a disservice, because the SaveTheInternet folks paint this as Big Business vs. The Little Guy, and that just isn't the case.
P.S. Justin, there's nothing "astroturf" about Hands Off... all the corporate logos are there on their main site. If you ask me, I'm wondering if SaveTheInternet isn't the actual astroturf here.
It certainly is big business vs the little guy, aka the american public. If net neutrality is repealed, then small blogs and websites run by people who can't afford to pay companies like comcast or AT&T will be shoved off, and so only big corporate sites that have the money to pay will have easy access to the general public. In my view, this is a direct assault on free speech. It limits the accessibility of the internet as a way to get your voice heard by giving great preference to the big established websites and companies already here.