Net Neutrality is the common ground that no internet service provider shall charge us, the consumers of blocking or charging us to view websites. That all access should be fair with no preferences or discrimination against certain sites. In 2015, the FCC Title II was passed. Title II added Net Neutrality under the classification of the broadband internet into telecommunication service, which meant that it reaffirmed Net Neutrality laws.
FCC's current head chairman, Ajit Pai, who was put into that position by President Trump has said that the FCC plans to roll back the Net Neutrality title, that was established by the FCC under then-chairman Tom Wheeler, under the Obama administration. As a result, the FCC can make a vote as soon as later November to kill net neutrality. Without Net Neutrality, internet service providers would charge us more money to access certain sites and block other sites, and their own competition. Not only is this happening but internet service providers are lobbying lawmakers to prevent states from making their own net neutrality laws if the FCC kills net neutrality. This show's how much the internet service providers want to undo this, just to charge us more money.
If this happens, then it's more likely that internet service providers will block our access to sites that may be popular and force us to buy a premium package that would force us to pay more money, in addition to what we pay for internet access. In Portugal, there are no net neutrality laws and this led to internet service provider to charge costumers packages that give certain access to websites for prices of $30 including internet access. Not only that but they charge $50 for 12 months for more access to websites such as youtube, Wikipedia and gives more file sharing data and mobile data. This is essentially paying more money just to access all the sites that we can have for free. Not only that but other providers in Portugal charge 5 euros per month to access only social media and if you want email sharing or access you have to pay an addition 5 euros per month. Want youtube or twitch? pay another 5 euros per month to have them and add 5 to music such as Spotify.
To prevent this from happening to us then we would need to ask Congress to put a stop to this. How? well by signing the current petition or read more on battleforthenet.com for more information. This isn't the first time that we had to fight to defend our internet, but if we band together again we can prevent this from happening. I cannot say that this will be the last time if we succeed, because Pai, has been confirmed for another 5 years as chairman of the FCC after President Trump recommended him for 5 more years.
