There are two possibilities: either this article is a drop in the ocean of articles addressing the issue of net neutrality, or it is not. Both of these options are deeply disheartening in their own way. If this article is a drop in the ocean, then no one is paying attention; if it is not, then no one is doing anything. Something does need to be done to prevent the repeal of net neutrality otherwise sites like what this article is being read on may not be able to get enough internet traffic to keep themselves alive and by this time next year it, and everything on it, will be gone.

For people that are not fully aware, on December 14th a vote will be held to determine whether or not to repeal net neutrality. That is to say, the vote by Congress will determine whether or not companies will be able to determine which websites may be accessed for free through certain networks. It would allow those same companies to slow down streaming services that they themselves are not profiting from to further benefit themselves. Even if the implications themselves didn’t sound like something out of a James Bond movie, the principle of taking something that for better or worse is a free space for all people to do what they want and exploiting it is enough to get multitudes of people speaking out against this.

But it likely will not be good enough, this current call for a repeal of net neutrality has gone much further than any other has before it.

And as it is this article may not even come out before the verdict is passed, but ultimately it doesn’t matter. There are enough people out there that can connect anyone interested in speaking out against the repeal of net neutrality that it does not warrant doing here. What is more important is understanding what will happen if the repeal does happen.

First and foremost, the very companies that are pushing for the repeal, who are primarily cell phone providers, will lose money. The vast majority of people in this day and age use smartphones such as the iPhone and Android, devices which have the appeal of doubling as a miniature computer as well as a phone. Should the internet become more difficult to access and more costly to use, this convenience and appeal go away and both the service providers and the cell phone manufacturers lose millions.

Other businesses would likely suffer too.

So many new businesses only survive past their first year because of online marketing and word of mouth through social media. Should people have to pay to use those services, fewer people will be on the internet and therefore grassroots marketing becomes far harder if not categorically impossible. In short, there is no telling what damage affecting the internet in this way will do to the economy on a national scale.

Second, yet just as important, the repeal of net neutrality will have the adverse effect of causing college tuition to rise as universities will be forced to buy subscriptions to whatever service providers they can to ensure that their students will have access to any online resources they need. The alternative is that colleges simply take as many resources as they can offline, which could potentially lead to any number of problems. If colleges were to choose to pay for internet providers, and they offered a fixed tuition rate, they would lose a massive amount of money every year that the students who started prior to the repeal of net neutrality continue to attend.

In both of these cases, terrible things will result from the loss of net neutrality that could prove harmful to the country as a whole. Likely, these are the very reasons why if net neutrality is repealed that it will likely not stay that way long. Things have only progressed this far because people have not done enough to speak out against it or they have not been heard to be doing so. But at a certain point, people have a tendency to act, especially once they are personally affected.

In the words of Niccolo Machiavelli, “the conquest of a people accustomed to freedom is never recommended fore, being accustomed to ruling themselves they will never accept the burden of a new ruler.”

While Machiavelli was referring to political rule and was writing long before the internet, the concept he is discussing could not be more pertinent. The internet, as this article has discussed, was built on and thrives on people being able to freely roam it free of charge. As I stated before, there are two possibilities: either people are able to prevent the repeal of net neutrality, or they are not. Both will result in a free internet in the end, it is just a matter of whether or not several congressmen will make a career-ruining decision first.