The Battle for Net Neutrality

On Friday, December 4th, the FCC found itself in a federal court, defending net neutrality. Again.

A quick review: net neutrality is the idea that users should be able to access all content and applications regardless of source, and that Internet providers should not block particular products or websites. Legal battles over net neutrality have been going on between the FCC and telecommunications companies like Verizon and AT&T for years, but this most recent hearing comes as a result of new net neutrality rules that the FCC approved in February of this year. Specifically, the FCC reclassified the Internet as a telecommunications service, meaning that it fell under common carriage (Ruiz, 2015). This reclassification gave the FCC the authority it needed to enforce net neutrality.

In court on Friday, broadband providers argued that the FCC was abusing its authority, while the FCC argued back that Congress had given them sufficient power to implement such rules (Fung, 2015). According to most reports, both sides put up a good fight. The decision could go either way.

The end of net neutrality is something that would undoubtedly affect libraries. The obvious downfall is that, eventually, the cost of Internet access would increase. But it would also affect the library’s ability to be a completely unbiased information resource. If a public library uses a specific Internet provider, and that provider chooses to promote a certain, for example, streaming site, they could easily slow down or block access to other streaming sites. The end of net neutrality could lead to censorship in libraries, and it would be censorship that, unfortunately, the libraries would have no control over. Unsurprisingly, the American Library Association is strongly in favor of net neutrality.

In past legal battles over net neutrality, the outcome has usually been a compromise of sorts. Certain parts were struck down, while others were upheld. No matter what the decision is this time around, it is certainly one libraries should be paying attention to.

References:

Fung, B. (2015). Net neutrality just went to court. Here’s how it did. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/12/04/net-neutrality-just-went-to-court-heres-how-it-did/

Ruiz, R.R. (2015). F.C.C. sets net neutrality rules. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/13/technology/fcc-releases-net-neutrality-rules.html?_r=0