The FCC’s net neutrality rules were overturned this week. Yawn. But this is a big deal. The gist is that with net neutrality rules in effect the phone and cable companies who deliver the internet into our homes are required to treat all the info coming from the internet the same. Whether it is my personal website, Facebook, Netflix or Comcast’s own Video On Demand service, the information has to flow unimpeded through the same pipes. As it were.

Without net neutrality, which is no longer the law of the land, Comcast could charge Netflix extra to deliver it’s stream into your house, for instance. Or, if your internet provider didn’t like what I had to say, it could block my personal site.

One of the greatest and most important attributes of the internet has been its status as an open sandbox or playground, available to all who have something to say. Without it, as this very clear article makes plain, our internet would look a lot more like our cable TV service. That is, unresponsive and expensive and pretty awful.

It is in all our interests to let the politicians who work for us so that they know that we want them to re assert our rights to net neutrality.