Today, I read that Google is going to sit down with Verizon and strike a deal that would end net neutrality. I know that this is a difficult and confusing topic for many, but I have been following this trend for about 4 years now. What I truly know is that I rely on net neutrality. It allows this website to exist and allows you to stop by and read it. It may not be as big as facebook, or twitter, or even some of the big webcomics, but it means something to me. Every single page view is like a little more fuel telling me that this is something I can do, and that there are people out there that would like to read my comics.

In response to today’s news, I have wrote this letter to Google. I honestly think that if we, the users of the internet, speak plainly to this company, they will listen. They have before.

Here is my open letter to Google. If it speaks to you, please use it as you need to.

Dear Google Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and Google Chairman Eric Schmidt,

It is undeniable that the internet is a chaotic mess of information, entertainment, legal and illegal activity. It is a bustling bazaar of merchants, buyers, consumers and participators. In a developed country where stores are systematically lined up in malls, the local restaurant folds to the chain that opens up next door and the television broadcasts news that benefits its shareholders more than the people, the internet is our last bastion of user controlled activity.

From my first foray onto the internet when I was merely 11 years old, I was enamoured by the possibilities of this new social space. The first thing I wanted to do was make my own website and share in the community. In less than I year, I was able to teach myself HTML, signed up for a tripod website and had my first page – about my favourite cartoons and comics – online.

Now, I’m a comic artist. My primary venue of distribution is the internet. I sell books, post sketches, talk with readers and have a webcomic all on my own website. My life has been transformed by a neutral and accessible internet, and now I want that opportunity to be passed on to my children.

Without a neutral internet, I would not have the venue to fullfill my life’s ambitions. Instead, I would most likely be working in the office of a company I am abstractly disconnected with or serving at one of those chain restaurants that forced my local joint to go out of business.

Google, I beseech you. In a world where all that exists are the big players, the people need advocates. I wish in all ernestness that you would pick up your mantle of that advocacy that defined your existence, and brand, when you first started. Please don’t sign this deal with Verizon. Please keep the internet this wonderful, loud and messy bazaar that has brought us so much freedom.

There is nothing like the internet in this world. It is truly new media. You are in a position to make history, to not allow our infant creations to fall to the standards of the status quo. To me, it doesn’t make a difference how I access the internet, but I can not be at the mercy of corporate gatekeepers. Be our advocate, Google, as you have promised us all these years. Our participation has helped you grow strong, don’t abandon us now.

Sincerely,

Vanessa Kelly
Coquitlam, BC Canada
anise.shaw@gmail.com

If you are interested in writing your own letter to Google, please do so here. They wouldn’t take my Canadian postal code, so I just gave them the one for Seattle. It’s 98125.