Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill is under siege, not by the dark side of the force, but by political figureheads, as his support for net neutrality draws the ire of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump Jr.
US Senator Ted Cruz has joined forces with Trump Jr. as they both wage a Twitter war against Hamill, who lambasted Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai for being instrumental in the repeal of net neutrality. Hamill criticized Pai's slightly mocking video about the cancellation of net neutrality.
In the video, Pai was holding a Jedi lightsaber as one of his props to demonstrate what regular consumers can still do without net neutrality. To this, Hamill commented that Pai is unworthy of wielding a lightsaber since the Jedi which Pai was trying to emulate is supposed to act selflessly and not enrich giant corporations, one of the implications of the removal of net neutrality.
Cute video Ajit "Aren't I Precious?" Pai" data-caption="null" data-credit="null">
Hamill also asked whether Pai paid John Williams his royalty since the music he composed for "Star Wars" was also used in Pai's controversial video.
Cruz then replied to Hamill that he seems to find Hollywood confusing and suggested that it was actually the revocation of net neutrality is actually a good and just move since it would "free the net." Net neutrality, as implied by Cruz, is actually favored by government control, something which "Star Wars" antagonist Darth Vader actually preferred.
.@HammillHimself Luke, I know Hollywood can be confusing, but it was Vader who supported govt power over everything said & done on the Internet. That's why giant corps (Google, Facebook, Netflix) supported the FCC power grab of net neutrality. Reject the dark side: Free the net! https://t.co/nARkMvIEYk
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) December 17, 2017 " data-caption="null" data-credit="null">Trump Jr. then rallied in support of Cruz saying that he killed Luke Skywalker and that the Jedi are no match for facts, mocking Hamill's lack of reply.
Ted Cruz kills Luke Skywalker again... Jedi apparently no match for facts. https://t.co/p1hiAR1hLC
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) December 18, 2017 " data-caption="null" data-credit="null">For those unfamiliar, net neutrality is the principle that all internet service providers must treat all data the same on the internet. This prevents content discrimination and paywalls being implemented by companies. As such, net neutrality keeps telecommunications corporations from controlling what can be accessed and done on the internet.
For now, the retention of net neutrality hangs in the balance since the bill still has to go through the US Senate before being fully repealed.
Meanwhile, those who share the same stance as Hamill for net neutrality can join a petition supporting it.
