"What on earth has gotten into our government?"
I feel that that's the only obscenity-free phrase that can express the outrage that you should be feeling about the plans to repeal net neutrality. And when individuals from both the far left and the far right—who normally can't agree on anything—think that getting rid of net neutrality is a really bad idea, you know there is something seriously wrong.
Does the Federal Communications Commission, or the FCC for short, not know how opposed the American people are to a censored Internet? Sure it does; why else did it unveil its plans to cut back on net neutrality during Thanksgiving week? Why else would it vote on the issue in December, when Americans are so caught up in holiday shopping they cannot afford to worry about politics?
Net neutrality is not a partisan issue—this is about our constitutional right to free speech. This is about the American people keeping their voices separate from those of big businesses.
All my frantic ranting aside, you're probably here for an explanation on what exactly net neutrality is. Basically, it is the guarantee that all information on the Internet is accessible. You pay for the use of the Internet in general, not for access to specific websites or Internet-based apps like Snapchat.
Without net neutrality, wealthy corporations like Comcast and Verizon can throttle the heck out of any website as they choose. For those who do not know, throttling—more formally called bandwidth throttling—is the act of an Internet-service provider intentionally slowing the speed of your Internet. This is typically done as a means of reducing the amount of data the company has to process at once, thus preventing services from crashing. It can be useful under the right circumstances.
Without net neutrality, however, corporations gain the ability to throttle websites for other means. The Internet will become like cable television; Internet-service providers will be able to charge for access to individual websites and specific Internet-based services like smartphones and computer applications. Essentially, this means that Internet-service providers gain the ability to censor, to favor their own business partners and advance any agenda they so choose by controlling the content that their customers view. Sure, they probably won't be able to prevent access to sites, but they can slow down the speed enough that it is almost impossible to load them.
By repealing net neutrality, we are giving businesses the power to manipulate and create the way in which we see the world.
Given that the money of these giant corporations—such as Verizon and Comcast—has been tied up for years in politics and lobbying, how can we trust that these companies will let us see the world as it is? How are we to know that the information that is readily available to us is not intentionally biased?
Comcast took down its pledge to uphold net neutrality the day the FCC announced its plans to repeal it. If that isn't suspicious, I don't know what is.
Giving corporations more control over the net has nothing to do with the common man—or even technological innovation, which is the main argument for the repeal of net neutrality. All it will do is give wealthy businesses the power to censor an open source of information to their liking.
How, may I ask you, is that compatible with American ideals?
