How Net Neutrality Repeal Could Silence Women And People Of Color

With network neutrality repeal, internet service providers (ISPs) are free to block or throttle any content they don’t like. That could include video, text and images distributed by people whose voices are underrepresented in mainstream society, including women and people of color. In her scathing four-page dissent to Thursday’s decision, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn worried about the effect on “marginalized groups” that rely on the internet to communicate “because traditional outlets do not consider their issues or concerns worthy of any coverage.” “It was through social media that the world first heard about Ferguson, Missouri, because legacy news outlets did not consider it important until the hashtag started trending,” Clyburn wrote, in reference to the Black Lives Matter movement.