Ali Chapman
Net neutrality is made of rules, backed by sanctions, that ensure all Internet content be treated equally by the companies we pay to get online. It makes Internet service providers treat all web traffic the same, no matter the source. The policy’s defenders say the regulations are at the heart of the idea that the Internet should be an open space where information travels freely without interference from service providers. It is the basic principle that prohibits internet service providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon from speeding up, slowing down or blocking any content, applications or websites you want to use. Net Neutrality is the way that the internet has always worked.
Under net neutrality, broadband companies are like passive conduits of data rather than content managers. When a customer pays Comcast or Verizon for Internet service, they’ve can expect to connect with equal access to any website, whether big or small. But, the FCC voted on Dec. 14 to kill net neutrality and unravel an Obama-era move that placed broadband regulation on a stronger legal footing.
Defenders of net neutrality say dismantling the current rules is anathema to a free and open Internet, and hurts online companies and consumers alike. Net neutrality advocate Ryan Singel, a media and strategy fellow at Stanford Law’s Center for Internet and Society, said the FCC’s dismantling of net neutrality means abandoning its traditional role as the protector of Americans’ right to choose which sites and apps they access.
Without the Net Neutrality rules, companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon can call all the shots and decide which websites, content and applications succeed. At the core of net neutrality is a hidden free speech principle that allows speakers and innovators to reach the people that they wouldn’t have if they cut the cable. Without net neutrality, control of the internet shifts from edge providers and users into the hands of broadband ISPs, who could operate as content-gatekeepers, demanding pay-to-pay tolls from edge providers, and thereby determining what info or services users can access
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