New York Public Library president Tony Marx presides over the largest public library system in America, in a city where 2,000,000 people lack broadband internet access, so he understands as well as anyone the way that libraries bridge the digital divide, a divide that gets deeper and more daunting every day, as key services and opportunities move online.
In a fantastic interview with The Verge’s Kaitlyn Tiffany, Marx explains how libraries rely on Net Neutrality as a cornerstone of this bridge, and how the FCC’s vote today to kill Net Neutrality threatens the very fabric of American public life.
AM: Well, we happen to believe in the First Amendment. We are a foundational part of the First Amendment. All libraries are. And you know, if you curtail people’s access to information, not only will they not be able to do their homework or look for a job or use our collections, they will not be able to inform themselves as citizens. And in this day and age, when accusations of false news are flying every day, the citizens need to be able to check facts and gather facts and argue about facts.
And they do that online, from the library. If we don’t continue to ensure that, our democracy is at risk. Not just the First Amendment.
What public libraries will lose without net neutrality
[Kaitlyn Tiffany/The Verge]