Net Neutrality: What Is It?
Assuming that you have Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or any social media platform applications, you most likely have seen one of the worldwide trends of #NetNeutrality. From famous celebrities to politicians to social media influencers and even your parents — everyone is talking about Net Neutrality. But what does it really mean and why is it so important?
According to Investopedia, “Net Neutrality is the concept that all data on the internet should be treated equally by corporations, such as internet service providers, and governments, regardless of content, user, platform application or device.”
Network neutrality requires all Internet service providers to provide the same level of data access and speed to all traffic, and that traffic to one service or website cannot be blocked or degraded. ISPs are also not to create special arrangements with services or websites, in which companies providing them are given improved network access or speed (Investopedia)
Let’s put this concept into a much more simpler perspective. You receive a notification from your friend who shared with you a cute yet hilarious Facebook video of a dog dancing around. With your love of dogs, you can’t wait to see what this Facebook video is all about. But right when you click on the video instead of it playing right away, you’re anxiously waiting for it to load. It takes about 2 minutes to finally load but as you’re viewing the video, it stops every once in awhile. You being to lose your patience and eventually just give up on watching the video.
Whenever you go online you have expectations. You expect to be connected to the internet right away. You expect to be automatically connected to any website or social media apps right away. You expect that your internet service or mobile provider is connecting you to all websites and applications you wish to access. “You expect to be in control of your internet experience” (FreePress).
Whenever you use the internet, you expect Net Neutrality.
But why is Net Neutrality important? Without Net neutrality, our online experience would be catastrophic in today’s society. Net neutrality allows us to communicate with others all around the world, allow access to the world of knowledge through different posts and perspectives, allows us to create a startup business or even make a living off the internet.
In such a technology based society, net neutrality is the foundation to what we have today. Not only does it allow for an easier access of communication or a great platform to start a business—net neutrality brings us all together as a community.
Another great representation of Net Neutrality is Burger King’s ad of the ‘Whopper Neutrality.’ They took the initiative to let their consumers know what net neutrality is all about and its impact it has to Internet users of today.