Will Rawlings Media Law and Literacy Blog and More

Having a presence on the internet now is all but inevitable these days, with social media and video streaming services being incredibly common. You can't even use most smartphones without creating an account with Google (for Android), Apple (for any of their devices), or even Microsoft (for Windows 10, although you can bypass the account requirement.) All those accounts track your usage, browsing habits, stuff you purchase online and usually sell the data or use the data serve you targeted ads. I manage to mitigate some of the tracking, for example, I use an ad blocker (uBlock Origin) on my browsers. Additionally, I have a Pi-hole setup on my home network, which utilizes DNS to redirect known ad and tracking links to a non-existent IP address, blocking them before they even reach my computer (you can read more about that here ). I might write a separate article about DNS-based ad blocking later. Also, I use a program called Windows 10 Debloater to disable most of the telemetry Micr...

Net neutrality, what does it mean, how does it affect you? Simply speaking, net neutrality is a policy that means that Internet Service Providers (like Spectrum, AT&T, etc) have to treat all data the same, and cannot throttle (slow down), charge more, or block any specific online content. This article from Wired covers the basic of net neutrality and its history really well.  For example, if there is no net neutrality, you want to access Netflix but you can't, because your internet plan is only on the "basic plan" and you need to pay an extra $50 dollars a month for the "Video Plus plan," without net neutrality this is allowed. As you can see, net neutrality, or the lack thereof, affects virtually everyone that has access to the internet. Courtesy of TNM However, this is the least sinister thing an ISP can do if there is no net neutrality. Let's say your ISP has been involved in some pretty dodgy or even borderline illegal things, you go to read an arti...

The "Marketplace of Ideas" states that " when truth and falsehood are allowed to freely grapple, truth will win out. And the grappling makes the truth even stronger. " However, when it comes to modern social media, it seems that finding the truth through all the false information is getting even harder. Even with so called "fact checkers" the truth can sometimes be hard to find, not to mention that the so called "fact checkers" have been shown to have biases in their reporting. This article brings up a great point, who fact checks the fact checkers? Social media platforms themselves have been "fact checking" posts as well, with a tweet from President Trump about mail-in ballots being labeled "misleading," the worst part being that the so called "fact checking" website that people were referred to was actually incorrect in their fact checking. In fact, a few days ago the State of New Jersey announced several voter fr...