If you haven’t heard about Net Neutrality yet, you aren’t paying attention. I wish I could write a cute, fluffy post about Thanksgiving, but without Net Neutrality, you won’t be seeing any of these posts anymore anyway. So let’s get educated.
What is Net Neutrality?
Net neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers and governments regulating most of the Internet must treat all data on the Internet the same, and not discriminate or charge differently by user, content, website, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or method of communication (Wikipedia). This is a long way of saying that our Internet providers cannot influence the websites we visit by charging us a cost to visit them or slowing down loading times on those pages.
What is Happening with Net Neutrality?
Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Ajit Pai, appointed by Donald Trump, is currently attempting a full repeal of the rules that make up Net Neutrality. This repeal will be going to vote this December 14th, 2017.
Who Thinks this is a Good Idea?
Honestly, I’m not sure anyone other than Ajit Pai and a bunch of already rich people think this is a good idea. Seriously, I think it’s something like 98% of the U.S. population agrees that Net Neutrality is a good idea. So only those who stand to benefit financially are in support of it.
Why Do We Care?
I like having a blog. I like using Google for my email and as my main search engine. I like playing on Facebook and watching stupid videos on Youtube. Most of all, I like that if I need access to knowledge, if I need to find out what is happening in the world, I can find out. I can look up information on ABC, CNN, or the New York Times. No matter what their interests are.
Repealing net neutrality can result in a limitation of websites you can view. Your Internet provider can choose which web pages load quickly and which ones do not. This means if you have Sprint, they can slow down loading times for AT&T to deter you looking at their page. Or if Netflix pays your Internet provider but Youtube does not, they can make streaming from Netflix faster than anything on Youtube. Your entertainment can also be broken into packages, resulting in different costs for different sites, such as an entertainment package for $30 per month and a separate news package for another $30 per month. And of course, the lack of rules also can easily result in information regulation. Essentially, your Internet provider can control what sites you can and cannot access.
How to be Heard
Ajit Pai has pretty openly stated that he has no interest in respecting public preference on this matter. However, it has to be officially repealed. One currently popular way to contact your members of congress is to text ‘Resist’ to 50409. You can also visit https://www.battleforthenet.com/ where you can write a letter to congress right there on their site.
There are five people voting on this decision on December 14th: Ajit Pai, Michael O’Rielly, Brendan Carr, Mignon Clyburn, and Jessica Rosenworcel. Mignon Clyburn will likely oppose the repeal, and Jessica Rosenworcel is asking for public forums to hear about this before the voting. The other three members currently seem to be planning to vote for the repeal, resulting in the loss of net neutrality. I encourage everyone to reach out every day and make your voice heard.
Let us save Net Neutrality!
