Net neutrality is a topic that seems to be resurfacing more and more lately, with arguments made both for and against it. For as pertinent as net neutrality is to our generation, it seems a widely unexplored concept, or something that “I think I understand but can’t explain.” My effort here is to help you to understand net neutrality and why it’s so important not only to our generation, but to anyone who uses the internet. Net neutrality is the idea that everything on the (legal) internet should be accessible to everyone, and should retain the same quality for everyone regardless of consumer and content. A non-neutral internet would be one in which companies would have the power to arbitrarily restrict and control the flow of the internet based on the website, content, the companies’ best interests etc.
One way to imagine a neutral vs. non-neutral internet is to imagine the internet as a highway. With a neutral highway, you’ll be able to travel wherever you want at the given speed limit. With a non-neutral highway, there could be restrictions placed on you by, say, the company that manufactured your car, who would dictate where you can go and at what specific speed. With these car manufacturers noticing high traffic destinations, they may also charge these destinations with a fee to allow cars to travel there. Additionally possible in a non-neutral highway would be toll roads, wherein you could go at a higher speed if you were to pay the higher price.
The destinations in this analogy would be websites you want to visit, websites like Netflix, Reddit, YouTube, etc. The car companies placing the restrictions would be ISPs (or Internet Service Providers). These are companies such as Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon.
So if the internet is non-neutral, these ISPs will be able to charge websites and content providers to get their product to consumers. They’ll also be able to arbitrarily block which websites you can visit. These blocked websites could include competitors’ websites, and the non-neutrality could be used to defeat competitors. For example, Comcast could choose to slow down or block your access to Netflix in an effort to get you to use Comcast’s TV service.
What would this mean for you? At best, this could mean a price increase in your Netflix subscription service. Worse than that though, it could mean that you won’t be able to visit certain websites at all. Non-neutrality essentially would give ISPs the power to influence or control content consumption on the internet, and the power to potentially harm competitors.
Why is this important right now?
Ever since the early to mid 1990’s the internet has been neutral, as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been able to regulate ISPs. These ISPs have been classified under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, a classification that allows the FCC to protect consumers from ISP actions. But since the internet is a (relatively) new and fickle beast, the semantics and thus laws surrounding it are subject to variability. There are two quick terms more boring than net neutrality I’d like to define before moving on: Title I and Title II. Title II is the classification that ISPs used to belong in, which allowed the FCC to regulate them. Because they were being regulated, ISPs couldn’t restrict websites, slow down streams, etc. Title I, however, is a classification under which ISPs cannot be regulated, and they will be free to make the internet non-neutral. So to recap: Title II results in a neutral internet, and Title I results in a non-neutral internet.
On May 18th, the Trump-appointed FCC Chairman, Ajit Pai, proposed a consideration to classify ISPs under Title I of the Communications Act rather than Title II. With a vote of 2 to 1, the FCC agreed, and decided to begin the process of giving ISPs more power. Because of this, net neutrality is no longer guaranteed.
So here’s what you can do. After the proposal that occurred on the 18th, there is a period where comments from the public will not go on record. This is known as the Sunshine Period, and only comments made after it will become a part of the proceeding. If you go to https://dearfcc.org , however, the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) will forward your comments directly to the FCC as soon as the Sunshine period has ended. So go to https://dearfcc.org, tell the FCC to preserve Title II and to preserve net neutrality!
