Even Massive Multinationals Support Net Neutrality

Net neutrality is what allows the internet to be what it is, and without it the internet would be pretty much useless. The Trump administration is presently trying to eliminate net neutrality to protect the profits of a very small group of companies. It’s worth noting that the Obama administration also tried this but didn’t go ahead with it

Without net neutrality the internet will undoubtedly suck, for a look at what that will be like check out this article. Net neutrality is awful for individual freedom and it’s also quite awful for profits, which is why today many popular websites and services are speaking out. For example, Netflix will basically be banned for some people and thus will lose their subscriber base.

If you’re an American then you ought to call your local representatives and talk to anybody who will listen about this issue. Today is the day of action. The repeal of net neutrality is censorship under a different name.

Sites across the web will display alerts on their homepages showing “blocked,” “upgrade,” and “spinning wheel of death” pop-ups to demonstrate what the internet would look like without net neutrality, according to advocacy group Battle for the Net. But most of the pop-ups The Verge has seen have been simple banners or static text with links offering more information.

Netflix, Spotify, and Airbnb have all placed banners at the top of their home pages, while Vimeo has an explainer video and graphics made available for download. Other websites, including Facebook and Amazon are participating, but haven’t yet disclosed what form their protests will take. Apple is not on the list of participants.

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The Web Makes You Humble, Not Stupid

In the early years of the internet people worried that it would make people stupid and people would sit around not contributing to society. It turns out that the internet is not as bad as TV. Indeed, the web may make us more humble and help us realize our own ignorance.

One possibility is that the internet actually makes us more humble. “We suggested that people might be engaging in a sort of social comparison between themselves and the internet,” Amanda Ferguson, one of the study’s authors, writes me in an email. “This would reduce their ‘feeling-of-knowing’ the answer (since they’re comparing themselves to the all-knowing internet), and ultimately lead them to answer fewer questions.”

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Amplifyd: A Platform to Stop Corporations from Doing Evil

Amplifyd Pledges – How It Works from Amplifyd on Vimeo.

Amplifyd is a new online platform that connects people to empower campaigns that want to stop corporations from doing evil things. The first campaign is focused on getting Starbucks and Peet’s Coffee to serve only organic milk in their stores.

In the future you can use the service in other ways. Is a company tearing down the rainforest or destroying land for precious minerals? Well you can use Amplifyd to get attention on the bad company!

Not all corporations are as overtly dreadful, but regardless, profits rule the day for most corporate organizations.

Amplifyd has launched a new advocacy platform, called Amplifyd Pledges, that gives people the power to take an amplified stand against harmful corporate policies, without even having to get up.

People can take part and amplify their voice by making a pledge to a campaign on the new platform. This works by choosing a dollar amount, then securely saving your credit card info for later. Amplifyd uses the collective pledges everyone makes as the financial carrot to get the corporations to change their policies.

Check out Amplifyd.

So Many Blogs About Sustainability!

Site like Things Are Good which cover good news about the environment, people, and politics aren’t that rare. When we started this site nearly 10 years ago there were few options to find places that cover good news. That has since changed.

Recently the folks over at AHAALiving did a round up of just Canadian blogs covering sustainability issues.

So we get our thrift shop-sourced knickers all knotted up in the best possible way when we find a good sustainability read online. We’re always looking out for the next David Suzuki (we need so many of them), and we truly feel that one of the most important ways to contribute to a more sustainable earth is to spread the word.

In light of this month’s giving theme, we present to you AHAALiving.com’s top 10 sustainability bloggers from across the Canadian blogosphere. Enjoy!

And they featured the very blog you’re reading right now!

This blog takes a refreshing approach to sustainability and eco-issues by focusing specifically on the good things that are happening around us and the progress we’re making towards a more sustainable earth. While part of being AHAA is, of course, possessing an awareness of what needs to change, sometimes eco-issues focus primarily on the negative. Things Are Good is a breath of fresh air.

Read more.

Inject More Serendipity Into Your Online Adventures

Not Recommended For You is a new website that is a reaction to all the other websites that recommend content based on what you do. Google tailors your search results so they are different than your friend’s and other websites track what you do on their sites to drive you to click more. Not Recommended For You is the opposite of that, it’s like walking through the library and discovering random books.

We’re big fans of the Internet, but not always the biggest fans of its recommendations. Our browsing history – what we’ve clicked, liked, watched or listened to – is turned into “Recommended For You’s” by smart algorithms. “Not Recommended For You” is a collection of video recommendations by people across the globe answering the question “What would you recommend, if you could recommend anything at all, to someone you don’t know?”.

The answers aren’t “algorithm smart” or even recommended specifically for you. But, they feel personal and turned out more unpredictable than we could imagine, ranging from practical recommendations like “try to live like a siamese twin for a week” or “choose small bad looking apples for the perfect apple pie” to motivational recommendations like “look up (…) if you can see the sky there’s always something to strive for”. Now, we’re turning it into a collaborative project by inviting people online to share their recommendations on our site.

Check out Not Recommended For You.

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