Net Neutrality is Dead: Who Will Regulate The Internet?
“Your monthly social media free trial had expired. Upgrade our Social Media Bundle now for $12.99/mo to keep accessing this website.” Imagine that this message pops up into your screen while browsing through your friend’s cat pictures. Now that net neutrality is dead, Internet service providers, also known as ISPs, have the power to do that. This could happen any time in the future.
Net neutrality is a set of principles that says that ISPs will provide a free equal access to the web. They also can’t intentionally block or slow down websites. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is a government-run agency in charge of the communications in the US, including radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. Net neutrality was repealed by the FCC back in December 14th, 2017.
Repealing net neutrality is certainly going to affect people like me. I spend most of my time on the internet. I use internet for social media, online shopping, video games and school. I enjoy the freedom of the internet and I don’t have to pay to visit different kind of websites. It would be absolutely unfair if I was denied access to the websites I regularly use so that companies can get richer. We should not repeal net neutrality because it gives ISPs more money and power while taking away consumer’s freedom on the Internet.
We need net neutrality because it gives small companies a chance to succeed alongside much bigger companies. According to The New York Times article “Why Net Neutrality Was Repealed and How It Affects You”, one of the rules of net neutrality is that “service providers could not create an internet fast lane for companies and consumers who pay premiums, and a slow lane for those who don’t.” This quote shows that net neutrality creates a fair place where both small and big companies have the same resources and capabilities in this website. Imagine this: you run a small company that sells computers on the internet. Your competitors, who are far richer, make a deal with Comcast so that their website run faster through the fast lane. That leaves your company to be slower and less prosperous because you can only afford to be in the slow lane. The idea of having fast and slow lanes can impact negatively by discouraging people to come up with their own innovations. Aside from hindering chances for small companies to succeed, repealing net neutrality affects people’s freedom.
Net neutrality protects people’s freedom on the internet because it prohibits ISPs from discriminating users or content. According to the The Independent article “Net Neutrality Repeal: What Is It, and Why Will It Make the Internet Much Worse?”, without net neutrality, “an ISP could slow down its competitors’ content or block political opinions it disagreed with”. This means that companies like Comcast, Verizon or AT&T can stop people from uploading content they disagree with. The repeal of net neutrality opens the door for ISPs to control the information on the internet. There are so many things we can access on the internet in a blink of an eye. Most of people in the US use the internet to keep up with the news and other people. It would be a violation of people’s freedom if ISPs only allows news from one political side. This can potentially become a big negative impact on democracy. The press should be controlled by the majority of the people, not by a oligarchy. It is one of the most important principles of democracy to make everyone’s opinion count, not just a few. In addition to consumer’s freedom, net neutrality repeal was financially supported by ISPs.
ISPs have invested millions of dollars to support the repeal of net neutrality. According to the MapLight article “For Every 1 Net Neutrality Comment, Internet & Cable Providers Spent $100 on Lobbying Over Decade”, “AT&T, which has spent $148.8 million during the last 10 years while lobbying government agencies, and Verizon, which has dropped $133.9 million, also argue that they support the concept of net neutrality but not the rules that enforce it.” This quote demonstrates that internet providers have planned the repeals for years and have waited for the moment to come to them. Spending hundred of million of dollars so that ISPs can have more power over millions of internet users. This is why we need net neutrality back, having companies to pick who wins and loses on the internet is not fair. According to Internet Live Stats, there are 286,942,362 internet users in the US as recorded in 2016. That is roughly 89% of the US population. Once ISPs get more power over the internet, we can expect to see a gap between users who have different tiers of internet services.
In conclusion, we should not repeal net neutrality because it gives ISPs more money and power while taking away consumer’s freedom on the Internet. Net neutrality is important for the world because it protects the people who use the internet. Net neutrality protects small internet companies by not competing with bigger companies. It also protects the people’s freedom on the internet. ISPs have been planning the repeal for 10 years and have spent hundred of million of dollars to fight against it. However, this is not over. There is still hope in recovering net neutrality. Net neutrality can come back through a Congressional Review Act (CRA) on February 27. With just one more vote on the Senate, this repeal can be overturned. If you wish to participate and take action, please visit the website: https://www.battleforthenet.com/onemorevote/ for more information.
