I chose #NetNeutrality to analyze because the issue is so divisive in the country right now. Even though it’s been a week since Ajit Pai announced his proposal to do away with net neutrality, people are still arguing vehemently about it. The vast majority of popular and high engagement tweets are those coming from people advocating for saving net neutrality. However, there are some who agree with Pai, but they appear to be the minority on Twitter.
Constituents filled our voicemail over Thanksgiving weekend opposing FCC’s #NetNeutrality decision. This isn’t just a hashtag, it’s a guarantee that the internet should be open and accessible for everyone.
— Rep. Joe Kennedy III (@RepJoeKennedy) November 27, 2017
Can y’all imagine the internet w/o #NetNeutrality? Changes in digital marketing, access to objective information, access to online services? Forget trying to create your own website; forget about easily googling for answers. For the love of all things good, #SaveNetNeutrality
— Claire Laging (@TClaireU19) November 26, 2017
Those in favor of preserving net neutrality make the argument that internet service providers shouldn’t be given the ability to control what things we have access to. People against net neutrality argue that regulation forcing internet service providers to give us total access is bad simply because they believe the government is meddling in something they don’t need to. The amount of anger in most of these tweets is obvious from both sides as well.
#NetNeutrality protects access to information. We have until December 14 to tell Congress to protect a free web. https://t.co/vSkofE7HQI pic.twitter.com/WAi5tDZ5e7
— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) November 27, 2017
You want the government to regulate the internet? You mean like they’ve regulated public education, healthcare, and the pending student loan disaster? No thanks. #NetNeutrality
— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) November 26, 2017
#NetNeutrality is a tough issue for many to grasp because of the vagueness in the actual term. Because of this, we see brief explanations of consequences and reasoning for saving or ditching it within these tweets, so a wider audience can understand and engage with it.
Donald Trump and Republicans are trying to restrict American freedom and destroy the Internet as we know it. We can't let that happen.https://t.co/zx43jElN0U #NetNeutrality pic.twitter.com/QPi37gpM9p
— George Lakoff (@GeorgeLakoff) November 26, 2017
You don't have a human right to Netflix and game streaming.
You don't have a human right to the labor of ISPs or their workers.
You don't even have a human right to Internet at all.
Sorry.
#NetNeutrality is a corporatist scam created by and for billion dollar companies.
— Bruce Fenton (@brucefenton) November 26, 2017
What a great topic to analyze. I’ve seen a lot of tweets recently in defense of keeping net neutrality from people in government, but I haven’t seen it being talked about by lots of regular people yet which surprises me. I think in this situation Twitter is a great platform for advocacy and to reach, educate and inform a wide and diverse audience. I think net neutrality isn’t on many people’s radars at the moment but will definitely be as the vote gets close and people understand more about the situation.