It seems like ever since the internet came into being, there have been those trying to regulate it. Whether it is the Communications Decency Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or more recently the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA), we are always hearing about new ways our internet could be changed. Now there is a new worry for internet users (aka – everyone): the fight over net neutrality. To understand why you should be following this hot topic, we will break it all down here.
What is “net neutrality” (also network neutrality or Internet neutrality)?
Net neutrality is a term coined by Tim Wu, a current professor at Columbia Law School, in an essay outlining how regulations could keep the Internet free and open for everybody. In Wikipedia’s definition, it is described as “the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, and modes of communication”. Currently we enjoy net neutrality; ISPs can’t force one webpage to load faster than another, we are allowed to personally view any site we wish, and we don’t have to pay extra fees to surf select sites or even just use the internet. If net neutrality is disallowed, all of this can, and probably will, change.
What is the government’s stance on net neutrality?
The fight over a free and open internet has been hotly debated for years, and the terminology used to classify internet and communications providers has been a large part of the delay. This past Tuesday, a federal appeals court in Washington struck down the FCC’s current rules for net neutrality. To read a concise breakdown of the ruling, check out this article. To add to the confusion, the chairman of the FCC, Tom Wheeler, released this ambiguous statement:
“The government, in the form of the FCC, is not going to take over the Internet. It is not going to dictate the architecture of the Internet. It is not going to do anything that gratuitously interferes with the organic evolution of the Internet in response to developments in technology, business models and consumer behavior.”
…and then went on to contradict it:
“But the FCC also is not going to abandon its responsibility to oversee that broadband networks operate in the public interest. It is not going to ignore the historic reality that when a new network transitions to become an economic force that economic incentives begin to affect the public interest. This means that we will not disregard the possibility that exercises of economic power or of ideological preference by dominant network firms will diminish the value of the Internet to some or all segments of our society.”
From that statement alone, you can probably tell where all this confusion and apprehension is coming from. No one can give us a straight answer as to the future of net neutrality, and companies like Verizon and Comcast have already begun the fight to control their customers’ internet.
If net neutrality is abolished, how will it affect me?
Have you ever been a victim of “throttling”? This is commonly seen across different mediums, such as when your internet service provider or cell phone company intentionally reduces your bandwidth for reasons like too much usage, unauthorized/illegal usage, etc. The reputable companies will tell you about this policy, and provide data limits so you know just how much data you can use before you are slowed down. The same thing could happen to the internet without net neutrality, but give complete control to the companies and leave us in the dark if they so choose. Would you be enjoying the same internet speed and bandwidth as your neighbor with a different internet provider? Probably not, and there would be nothing you could do about it without likely paying extra fees. ISPs could also play blatant favorites for profit. For instance, Verizon could decide that it wants to give higher priority to the websites that will pay them the most. Businesses with a huge online presence and disposable income like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google can easily pay the toll and move to the top of the list, while smaller companies and sites will become slow, laggy, and a general pain to visit. And consider all the products we use for streaming. Streaming video, games, music, and movies eats up bandwidth but is an extremely popular way of enjoying different media. Services like Chromecast, Playstation Now, and YouTube base their services almost entirely on the ability to stream content. To keep things streaming the way they should, they would have to pay fees to EVERY internet service provider that they wanted to keep things running smoothly on. And guess who would end up footing that additional cost? That’s right, us lucky consumers. This could really affect the gaming community. If you’re like me, you already know that gaming is an expensive habit – especially on computers. There is the rig itself, maintenance, the price of the games, internet costs, hardware upgrades, subscriptions, DLCs…the list goes on and on. Throwing another fee on top of the pile (and maybe even multiple fees) would definitely hurt.
The bottom line
Vinton Cerf, considered a “father of the Internet” and co-inventor of the Internet Protocol, as well as Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the Web, and many others have come out in favor of net neutrality. Multiple European countries have introduced or passed legislation to protect neutrality, and enjoy a better internet experience because of it. Many argue this is just a profit grab for internet service providers, which seems highly likely. ISPs in favor of regulation believe that they should have the right to control access and speed since they are the ones providing the services. However, the modern internet was created with the intention of being a medium for free and open expression and discovery. Does anyone have the right to control it? While there is no way of telling what the future of the internet is for the United States, being aware of the issue is step number one to protecting our freedom. We will continue to follow this issue until there is a decisive answer in the hopefully near future.
Sources: Wikipedia – net neutrality, CNN, CNET
Net Neutrality