Net Neutrality and Entertainment
So what’s really happening?
Such online messages are about to become commonplace in the near future. On December 14, 2017, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission decided to do away with net neutrality.
The decision drew flak from all quarters of America and the rest of the world. After all, net neutrality is the cornerstone that keeps the internet free and fair while protecting people’s rights to access information online.
Net neutrality has been aptly described by Barbara van Schewick, a professor at Stanford Law School and an expert on the subject, as “the secret sauce that has made the internet awesome.” Now, the repeal of the net neutrality principles threatens to take this awesomeness away.
ISP Hegemony Ahead
In a world that is increasingly dependent on the internet, net neutrality protects users by ensuring that internet service providers (aka ISPs) such as Verizon, AT&T and Comcast, do not misuse their immense powers by interfering with the free flow of information (and memes) on the web.
For those unfamiliar with the term, net neutrality obliges ISPs to treat all traffic irrespective of its source — whether it is an email, a blog, a website, a podcast, an apps’ or a video — equally. This means that online content isn’t given preferential treatment.
In dismantling its own Obama-era decision to uphold net neutrality, the FCC has let the proverbial genie out of the bottle. American ISPs — many of which own media and entertainment subsidiaries — now have the freedom to promote content from favoured organizations, while creating a hostile environment for the competition. Practices like throttling, prioritizing, and blocking, can breed monopolistic situations that can inflict serious damage on content producers and consumers alike.
Imagine a scenario where an ISP assigns faster speeds and cheaper transmission rates to a favoured news channel, while making it slower and costlier for a rival organization — or even blocking it altogether. In addition to negatively impacting the disfavoured news channel, the ISP has effectively robbed the public of the freedom to access content of their choice.
The setting aside of net neutrality rules is also bad news for creativity in the entertainment sector. While larger media organizations may be able to cough up higher ISP fees, the same cannot be said for newer or smaller models operating on shoestring budgets. Many of these smaller initiatives may belong to young artists who have brilliant stories to tell, but whose enterprise may not survive the harsh dictates of ISPs. The economic and cultural losses caused by the premature demise of such startups may be hard to measure.
Citing the example of Portugal where the absence of net neutrality has egged the country’s ISPs down a hegemonic path to the detriment of others, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California tweeted: “With no net neutrality, internet providers (in Portugal) are starting to split the net into packages. A huge advantage for entrenched companies, but it totally iced out startups trying to get in front of people which stifles innovation. This is what’s at stake, and that’s why we have to save net neutrality.”
Don’t throw your DVDs away — yet
The universe of the Internet of Things is expanding rapidly, driving our dependency on the internet to record levels. Advancing technology keeps calling for humongous amounts of data streaming at breakneck speeds. While we previously had physical movie libraries at home, it is now fashionable to rely on cloud technology to store and play our movies and music files on demand. Thanks to the luxury of unlimited broadband at home, we rarely think twice before streaming gigabytes of movie data from entertainment platforms like Netflix.
This insatiable appetite for data plays nicely into the hands of ISPs. For consumers, however, the party may soon be over as ISPs flex their muscles to raise broadband prices. In this scenario, we may either have to ration our domestic gigabyte consumption, or upgrade to costlier subscriptions. The divide between the digital haves and the have-nots will grow wider, leading to the possible comeback of older, offline technologies — such as DVD (welcome back, Blockbuster).
The public is waking up to the multifaceted ramifications of the FCC decision and the vulnerabilities that come with it. As per a December 2017 survey conducted by the Washington Post, more than 80% of Americans polled said that they favoured keeping net neutrality. This sentiment may grow powerfully and vocally if citizens feel their right to access entertainment in a reasonable manner is being violated by irrational ISP behaviour.
How far the ISPs will go to establish a monopolistic hold over the internet is anyone’s guess. Only time will reveal the true answer.
