Dec. 10-Dec.16: The End of Net Neutrality
This week, the FCC voted 3–2 in favor of ending the Obama-era Net Neutrality regulations. Here is how it may affect you.
Welcome to the Zeitgeist Chronicle. Every weekend we catch you up on the past week’s most interesting pop culture and news events. Sometimes it’ll be what everybody’s talking about, other times it may be something we’d like to bring attention to. Our goal is keep you informed enough to be able to have a conversation about any of these current events. This week:
We’re in an age where we take internet access for granted and we don’t really think about what really constitutes “the internet.” It’s one of those things that you don’t become aware of until it starts to change. Well, that change is coming, and it all comes down to Net Neutrality and this week’s vote to end it. But first:
What Is Net Neutrality?
In 2008, Comcast, an American internet service provider (ISP), started intentionally slowing down their customers’ connection when using the P2P file-sharing application BitTorrent because it was counterproductive to their cable TV business. In 2012, AT&T started outright blocking their customers from using FaceTime on their iPhones because they wanted to stop customers from using a service that competes with their own.
The Obama-era Net Neutrality regulations introduced in 2015 stopped that. Net Neutrality is what ensures all data on the internet is treated equally. It’s what prevents telecommunications companies from charging you based on the sites you visit; it’s what prevents Amazon from paying your ISP to speed up your Amazon Prime Video connection and slowing it when using Netflix; and it’s what prevents ISP’s from blocking websites that conflict with their interests. Net Neutrality is, essentially, the secret sauce of the internet.
What Happened This Week?
This past Thursday, after an interruption due to a bomb threat, the Federal Communications Commission voted 3–2 to repeal the aforementioned Net Neutrality regulations. FCC Chairman, and Trump appointee, Ajit Pai’s rationale is that consumers are more concerned about having access to the internet than they are about ISP’s blocking access to specific content. He also alluded to a belief that the government should not be micro-managing the internet and that competition, with FTC oversight, will keep ISP’s honest.
History shows otherwise. Reality also shows that not everyone has multiple ISP options. Vertical integration is increasingly common. ISP’s rarely just provide you with internet access anymore. Your ISP may also be involved in broadcasting, which means it likely also owns the app you use to watch their programming, and it may also be an investor in a news outlet you frequent. The more areas ISP’s are involved in, the more reasons they have to prioritize their owns interests over a competitor’s.
In the U.S., the danger of corporate consolidation (a Disney-Fox merger was approved literally on the same day of the FCC vote) makes that even more likely. An AT&T-Time Warner merger has been in the works for over a year now, which, if the deal were to go through, would mean AT&T would own companies like HBO and CNN, giving AT&T countless reasons to intentionally slow or block your connection to competitors like Netflix and MSNBC.
This week’s vote to repeal the Net Neutrality regulations removes the chains that barred companies like AT&T from doing things like that. It only takes one ISP to do something before others follow suit to stay competitive. The only real “rule” we know of at the moment is that if ISP’s do things like that, they have to make it publically known to their customers.
What this comes down to is faith in corporations. The FCC seems to trust them, as well as the institutions that are supposed to keep them in check (i.e., the Federal Trade Commission), but I would urge you to be more hesitant, for the simple reason that corporations exist only to make money.
Who Does This Affect?
Everyone. Some more than others. Regardless of what you use the internet for and regardless of where you live. You may be forced to pay to use apps that were once free. You may have to stop using Netflix and switch to another video-streaming service because your ISP has a relationship with a Netflix-competitor. You may not be blocked from accessing publications criticizing your ISP for doing these things. Social movements you’re a part of, like the next #BlackLivesMatter, may not get a fair chance to take off and you may continue to be marginalized. When already-powerful corporations can operate with no holds barred, everybody is affected, in one way or another.
