Creativity, innovation, and a public that is concerned about the issues affecting them — those are the gifts that net neutrality has given our country.

It is no surprise that some of the most popular sites on the Internet are sites with publicly-generated content — YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr. On these sites, the citizen, regardless of gender, race, or economic class, has the same voice as the celebrity or corporation. And artists and innovators have a chance to reach an audience directly and in turn develop their own business models. We artists have been told repeatedly by corporations that the public wants to see certain mainstream content. Ironically, many of the most popular and profitable websites and web series would never have made the cut in a corporate-run Internet.

My show, Downsized, depicts stories of people often ignored by corporate media: the unemployed, the endangered middle class, the small business owners, the immigrants, women in leadership roles, and homeowners facing foreclosure, those who have faced the economic crisis the most harshly. If not for the freedom of an open Internet, this show, which was produced and distributed entirely independently and has become one of the most acclaimed web shows, might never have been seen.

Then We Got Help, created by Julie Ann Emery, depicts the struggles within contemporary relationships of both heterosexual and homosexual couples. It touches on gay marriage, same-sex adoption, infertility, women who are breadwinners, and unemployment within the banking industry. Two web dramas with millions of viewers, Anyone But Me and Out With Dad, depict the coming of age of lesbian teenagers. Web comedies Dating in the Middle Ages and 50 to Death depict romance after 40. The drama Diary of a Single Mom dramatizes the obstacles single mothers face such as childcare, healthcare, and education. Each of these non-mainstream, independent shows have not only found enormous audiences but well-deserved awards because they had a home on the Internet, a home they did not have in corporate-run media.

The public looks to the Internet to find content they are not given the opportunity to see in a mainstream media run by major corporations. By turning the Internet into the cable system you will be turning the public away from the Internet by replicating a system that does not depict the diversity in this country but rather reflects the opinions of a small group of media owners comprised mostly of white wealthy males… a group I am personally quite fond of, but the Internet public has demonstrated that they would like to hear from other groups as well.

If we no longer had an open Internet, my web site, DigitalChickTV.com, which I built on WordPress myself for $70 with a free online tutorial, would load so slowly that it wouldn’t be worth visiting, that is if you could even find it. The community of women who are empowered by visiting my site would instead be frustratedly tapping their mouse.

Stifling access to information and curbing revolutionary ideas would be detrimental to this country. We have become a smarter, more aware, more inventive, and more empowered culture, and that is because the Internet is that cool, open space where the public has a voice and a choice and a platform for their curiosity. That is why people hang out there all of the time. The Internet is inherently about sharing not mediating. Without net neutrality, the Internet is simply not the Internet.