Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) is calling on the Federal Communications Commission to make broadband Internet service as a public utility and he is using the recent protests in Ferguson, Mo. to do it.
Ellison’s argument against a proposed rule to create Internet “fast lanes” for companies willing to pay for them is that the Internet should be a place where everyone can be equal.
From his new op-ed in the Huffington Post:
An open Internet protects opportunities for communities of color. It lets people report on injustice and organize to confront it. An open Internet helps people of color launch businesses online, with lower startup costs than entrepreneurs often face. It lets artists and creators tell their own stories, rather than depending on traditional media to decide which stories are worth telling.
The recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, serve as an example of how a community can use the Internet to organize and join together in the aftermath of a tragedy. In the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death, images and stories shared by Ferguson residents on the Internet became a major part of news coverage. If Internet providers had made it difficult for residents to share their videos and pictures with the public, the story of Ferguson would be fundamentally different.”
Ferguson has become the most recent Democrat calling card, with references to the racially-charged events that took place there popping up in arguments for anything and everything.
Fast food workers striking for a $15 minimum wage invoked Ferguson and President Obama recently referenced the Ferguson protests in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly about foreign affairs.
“I realize that America’s critics will be quick to point out that at times we too have failed to live up to our ideals — that America has plenty of problems within its own borders. This is true. In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri, where a young man was killed, and a community was divided. So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions,” the president said.
“But we welcome the scrutiny of the world because what you see in America is a country that has steadily worked to address our problems and make our union more perfect.”
