He who owns the information is all-powerful

With a majority-Republican Federal Communications Commission led by Republican Ajit Pai on the verge of reversing net neutrality rules put in place by President Barack Obama in 2015, people won’t even be able to guide their own education anymore, and they won’t even know they aren’t in control. All of this despite more than a million public comments submitted to the FCC opposing net neutrality probably being fake.

Pai’s proposal to destroy the freedom of the Internet would allow Internet service providers to influence the information users receive when surfing the web. ISPs would be allowed to guide users to information on websites they own or of which they approve, providing a guided tour of information acceptable to them instead of allowing the user to investigate all information available.

The information superhighway would be exactly that — if said highway’s path was dictated by those providing the concrete and materials and not the people who pay the taxes to build it. A highway with infinite exits would gave way to a highway of limited exits, determined by the biggest companies providing services along the highway. If your business is too small, it doesn’t get an exit on the information superhighway. People will have to pay extra to find you.

The proposal would also allow ISPs to break up their information offerings and charge separately for them. Say, for instance, Verizon provides your mobile data. Well, under the new rules, which are expected to be adopted on Dec. 14, Verizon could charge more for audio and video content than it does for access to written web content. They could even charge more for specific shows that don’t represent Verizon particularly well. So shows that actually inform could be off limits to those who can’t afford to pay the ISP’s fee.

Controlling the access to information is one of the oldest tricks in the business class’s textbook. Ignorance is key to controlling people. Slave owners didn’t want slaves reading and writing for a reason. Now that the business class realizes it can dictate behavior through media and advertising and has made public education bad enough and post-secondary education expensive enough to keep the majority of Americans ignorant of its agenda, controlling the Internet is the last logical step in obtaining complete control of the populace and establishing a Fascist state.

The Kochs’ investment in Meredith Corp’s purchase of Time, Inc. (consisting of some of the most-read magazines like Time and Sports Illustrated) is indicative of the value in controlling information. While the Kochs won’t have a seat on Meredith Corp’s board nor the power to dictate editorial decisions, they will have the inside track to nearly a third of the magazines’ pages through advertising.

The Kochs are investing in Time and Sports Illustrated’s dedicated audiences, consisting of people the Kochs don’t likely reach with their current advertising campaigns. This will give them the opportunity to influence people without them knowing and, perhaps, “turn” them to the Kochs’ side. The strategy is not unlike that of Sinclair Broadcast Group, which is the largest owner of local news broadcasts in mid-markets and dictates editorial content that makes people needlessly fear terrorist attacks and is designed to make its viewers into Conservative Nationalists.

Sinclair and the Kochs are in the business of molding Republicans so they can pass legislation that’s friendly to their fat pocketbooks. And now they have the FCC on their side, working to make ignoramuses of us all. Don’t let them. Pay the $30 or so per year for a virtual private network to hide your IP address when you surf the web. Investigate your internet service and mobile data providers thoroughly. Read your contract before committing to any ISP or mobile data provider, and never commit to either for more than one year.

Contracts with ISPs and mobile data providers are likely to change dramatically in 2018, so be on the lookout for an email in your inbox with “Changes to our terms” or something like it in the subject. Read it. Don’t just delete it, because you could be agreeing to charges that will surprise you when you receive your bill. And if it gets to the point the reversal of net neutrality rules gets so bad many Americans don’t have reasonably-priced access to an Internet experience free from corporate influence, we all need to give up our Internet and mobile data, because a boycott is the only way to bring down an unregulated corporation operating as a monopoly.

This was originally published at GCNLive.com.