A while ago somehow
my computer found out my age. And I started seeing these bait-click ads on the
side of websites I was looking at, “What to know when you’re 24!” “How to
manage your money at 24!!” “Ways to save at 24!” “Relationship advice for 24
yr-olds!” They suddenly knew my age and
that my love life was stagnant.
And
I was seeing these at a particularly low point in my… earnings. I kept telling
myself, “Oh, they think they’re gonna get me with this one, don’t they.” And
“Don’t click on it, Parisa, don’t click on it, IT’S A SCAM.”
But then one day, the Facebook Newsfeed was only showing me things I couldn’t care less about, which actively depressed me, instead of all the stuff from the people I care
about, which it always seems to try to hide from me. And one of those penny
hoarder bait-click ads popped up on the side and I was just like “f*ck it,” and
I clicked on it. “24 ways to make more
money at 24!”
I feel like the easy and fast
progression of these events is indicative of Russian influence on Facebook.
The place it took
me to made my computer hyperventilate but I figured as long as I was already
there, and ready for pop-ups, I might as well read this fluffed-up list.
A lot of the
things were really basic, like “get a job, have more than one bank account,”
but then I ran across this one, “set up an independent income scheme,” and I
was instantly captured by that idea.
I carefully read
the paragraph under that headline four or five times before I noticed that they
really weren’t telling you how to set up an independent income scheme, they
were just saying, “yo, this is a super good idea, dude, def get on it, man, get
started now!” Which I was pretty disgruntled by. I mean, what the f*ck is an
independent income scheme and how the hell do I get in on one!? It sounds
awesome and only mildly illegal. That is exactly up my alley.
It just sounds too great, an independent income scheme. That sounds like money that you would have to do very little work for, that would somehow appear, independently.
It just sounds too great, an independent income scheme. That sounds like money that you would have to do very little work for, that would somehow appear, independently.
I am all about
that. Even if, I still don’t exactly know what it is.
I’m not even
convinced that whoever wrote the bait-click-fluff piece even knew what it was,
since there was no definitive description, example or explanation in that
paragraph I read over and over again. It was just like, “an independent income
scheme is a great way to independently pad
your income!”
The word that
really catches my interest here is “scheme”…. I like that word. I like that
word a lot. I especially like it in phrases like pyramid scheme, and profit
sharing scheme. Ponzi scheme. Color scheme.
In my eyes, the
word scheme can do no wrong. It can
only be beneficial to you, otherwise it would be called something else, like plan or system. That’s when you know you’ve got the short end of the stick.
When, instead of using nefarious sounding words, they use words that make it seem
a lot less active and more of a communal, friendly effort, because that’s how
they trick you into participating in their
scheme. Or system. You didn’t come up with that idea, and it doesn’t really
benefit you, but as long as it’s called “a system,” then it’s fine, you’ll
participate in it and won’t really notice anything wrong. It’s only when it’s
called a scheme that people’s ears
perk up and they’re like, “Uh, wait, who exactly is this benefitting?”
A real-world,
real-American example I can think of that relates to this is the tax plan
President Trump has… “thought” of. There’s a lot of literature circling about how this tax
plan is for everyone and is going to be a great thing! I think if we switched
the word “plan” with the word “scheme,”
everyone would be a lot more suspicious of this tax reform. President Trump recently called it
a great gift to the middle class, and yes, it’s a great gift. Just like the
Trojan Horse was a great gift to Troy…a city that was then sacked by the invading
Greeks hiding inside.
You’re
probably wondering, how does this relate to net neutrality?
The
answer is simple and yet strangely complicated. If you are out to make hordes
of money for yourself and think that certain people, people who aren’t you, deserve
to be at the bottom, to be ranked below other human beings, you probably won’t
agree with me, but I believe the internet is a resource for everyone, like
water or air. In many other countries and in some places in this country, internet and Wi-Fi is
purchased by towns, for the whole town and free to connect to if you reside in
the city limits. That’s because internet access is considered one of those
tools that modern life cannot function without. Like literacy. All around the
world there are programs like these, called wireless community networks or
wireless community projects, working to make the internet accessible and
controlled by the people who are using it, not a company that’s only purpose is
to make money.
Without
laws protecting net neutrality, there’s nothing to stop providers from blocking
certain websites or charging for higher-quality service or content. It also
means that the federal government will no longer regulate high-speed internet
delivery like they do utilities such as phone service. Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications
Commission and given that position by Pres. Trump, claimed that striking down net neutrality would eventually benefit consumers (somehow), but mostly talked
about how limiting these government regulations have been to telecom providers’
business.
Yes, it is limiting
when a major company, one of only about five across a country with a population
of 323.1 million, can’t take advantage of people the way it really wants to. Never
mind that many of those people already have no choice about who their providers
are because of the natural monopoly companies hold when there simply is no
other company available in the area.
How could telecom
conglomerates expand beyond a monopoly, if that is what they already have? Without the F.C.C. to oversee the behavior of
these companies, it will be easier for them to charge people more money for
less service. They would be able to come up with tiers of service so that only consumers
with the ability to pay would be able to use the fastest internet. Or maybe
only consumers in the higher tiers would be able to stream, visit certain
websites, or upload efficiently. This would inherently control the content of
the internet.
In 2012 at the
London summer Olympics, the man who invented the world wide web, Sir Tim
Berners-Lee, stood up and typed out “This is for everyone.” It’s ironic, since now we have
given the ability to decide just who
that “everyone” is directly to the companies that already control access. This essentially
also gives control over internet content to big money, conglomerates and other
powers that are invisible to us as consumers. Without net neutrality, there is
no way to guarantee our safety online and the protection of our online civil
liberties. There’s no way to protect free speech, if there’s no defense against
censorship at the most basic level.
The Russians have
already gotten to Facebook, the 2016 election, and our president. Internet
neutrality is the modern manifestation of the spirit of our constitution. Let’s
protect our freedom from the Russians. And by Russians, I mean Vladimir Putin, purportedly
a great friend of Donald Trump.
It’s unfortunate that Donald Trump
is not a friend of the American people.
Here Donald Trump
claims that he would have rushed in to save the students and teachers of the
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School from the gunman with an assault weapon
even if he was unarmed. Donald Trump, who dodged the draft in 1968 because his feet hurt.
Some more links you might enjoy:
The Constitution. Our Constitution. Which our president is strangely unfamiliar with.
Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow's 1996 Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace
We need net-neutrality, if only to hold companies accountable for fostering online environments where fake news and propaganda flourish in a hidden mode of production.
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