Net (i.e., the internet) Neutrality is a controversial and confusing topic that is not well understood by most of us. This is a highly-nuanced subject, with a lot at stake, and an issue that simply is not a black-and-white choice. It’s a very young concept, which is evolving super rapidly.
Sometimes things happen so fast, there isn’t a chance to think them through. Scientists and Techies can be so excited and consumed with their new technologies that they haven’t been thoughtful about the consequences of their discoveries and innovations, and government is notoriously slow to react.
People are overwhelmed. It’s like watching them walk with their eyes on the ground so they won’t trip, when there is so much to learn about and be excited about when they have the information to help them look up and forward. Being technically illiterate really leaves people at the mercy of others who do understand the new paradigms we live with now.
WHAT IS NET NEUTRALITY?
Net Neutrality means that all internet traffic should be treated equally. The internet has unofficially, sometimes officially, been considered a common carrier. Common carriers are public or private enterprises that supply public services to the general public without discrimination, like water, electricity and internet access.
SOME VOCABULARY YOU NEED:
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): these are the entities that build and service the system; the hardware, the satellites, the cables, the towers. Comcast, Charter, Verizon and ATT are some of the big-name providers. And, in fairness, they have huge research and development, infrastructure and maintenance costs.
The Content Providers: these are the entities that handle the distribution of online content in various formats. The content can range from giant, bandwidth-eating providers like Facebook, iTunes and Google to individual blogs. They provide music files, video files, graphic and text files. They are, both large and small, the entities that harvest and sell our personal data as we plug into the infinite content available on the internet.
THE RULES
In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission established Open Internet rules to protect and maintain universal access for legal online content, and to prevent ISPs from being allowed to block or impair content or establish fast/slow lanes of traffic.
The Bright Line rules are simple and elegant but constantly under legal challenge. The FCC must develop the will to enforce them. The rules are:
No Blocking of access, legal content, applications, services or non-harmful devices.
No Throttling. Providers may not impair or degrade lawful internet traffic on the basis of content, applications, services or non-harmful devices.
No Paid Prioritization. Providers may not favor some lawful internet traffic over other lawful traffic in exchange for consideration of any kind. In other words, no “fast lanes.” This rule also bans ISPs from prioritizing content.
WHAT’S THE FIGHT ABOUT?
The ISPs want to be unregulated, claiming public utilities are highly regulated and woefully low on innovation and development. Jeffry Eisenach of the New York Times wrote, “Public utilities are among our least innovative, worst-performing industries. Search the phrase ‘America’s aging infrastructure’ and you will find dozens of articles and studies detailing lack of adequate investment in our bridges, gas pipelines, electricity transmission systems and other utilities.”
Also, ISPs want to sell tiered services, i.e., Providers with the most money get faster, wider lanes. They also want to be able to collect data from users to sell, like the Providers do. That means even more tracking of us, my friends.
In favor of Net Neutrality, the Content Providers and, for that matter, the general public, don’t want the ISPs having any say on what passes over the information highway. They don’t want a repeat of Comcast’s treatment of Netflix, when Comcast and NBC/Universal merged, and suddenly, Netflix was taking ages to buffer while NBC content was flying through the Comcast pipes. There are a lot of examples of this kind of sabotage by ISPs.
Bandwidth hogs like Amazon and Hulu would like a tiered system. But, if they can pay to receive special services, small start-ups would be at a big disadvantage. Smaller providers want Net Neutrality to insure equal treatment of all data and to prevent the ISPs delivering the content from playing favorites.
IT’S NOT THAT SIMPLE:
Under Net Neutrality, the government would regulate the Net as a public utility. A Pandora’s Box of government-controlled internet is opened. The ISPs are big, but the Federal Government is even bigger. In countries like China and Iran the pipes are “regulated” way past the Bright Line Rules.
WHAT TO DO?
There are Conservatives and Liberals on both sides of this issue. We need not see it as sides. In fact, we want the freedom and need the oversight, and we need to figure that out.
At present, the Net Neutrality public utility model is on hold. The current administrators are opting for de-regulation. But the FCC has been responsive to public demands for enforcement of anti-monopoly laws in the past. In fact, leaders on both sides of the aisle are presently looking into monopoly laws regarding the giant companies in the telecom world, ISPs and Providers.
Millions of Americans have weighed in on Net Neutrality. This is where public pressure crosses all party lines, because we all want the Net to continue to be the open-sourced, democratic marvel we have enjoyed for the last forty years. We want it to be free. We want it to be honest.
The main watchdog of the Net has always been the general public. Remember, the FCC works for you! (fcc.gov)
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