Net Neutrality is No More

By Akshat Sood

In a 3-2 vote on 14th December, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the United States of America passed a measure that will remove strict net neutrality laws that were enforced two years ago. Those rules were put in place in order to prevent internet service providers (ISPs) from throttling and blocking traffic on the internet and offering faster lanes at higher prices. 

ISPs can now control what consumers can see and do on the internet by applying tariffs and censorship. They now have the power to slow sites down and press sites into paying millions to get out of the bracket of ‘slow websites’. They can slow down their competitors’ content or block political opinions they disagree with.

The new vote that officially aims at removing net neutrality altogether will prevent the FCC from enforcing net neutrality in the future, even if it wanted to. ISPs now have the right to throttle, block and prioritize all content on the internet. 

As Twitter user @jtm_ explained, net neutrality prevents the ISPs from discriminating the “traffic that passes through the ISPs’ lines. The problem will be that you will have to pay extra to access websites that haven’t tied up with ISPs to be on a base package”. It is equivalent to a postal service opening up and reading every single letter that people send and decide which letter should be sent slower or faster or not sent at all because it doesn’t use the brand of paper that has a tie up with the postal service. 

According to @jtm_, the loss of net neutrality will allow websites to “open and read all information that you send or that is sent to you”. 

Those in support of net neutrality have argued that many ISP can now own content companies and fix tariffs to put their own content at an advantage and hence get more eyes on it, making it more valuable. 

Start-ups and small companies that cannot afford to pay the fee that ISPs demand for fast access to their websites will be entirely extinguished. Small business owners, start-ups and entrepreneurs rely heavily on the open internet to launch and expand their businesses, advertise their products, create markets and reach customers. Their job growth, competition and innovation will now be limited. 

In order to reverse what millions believe to be a barbaric decision by the FCC, a website (www.battleforthenet.com) has been set up that urges citizens of the USA to write to the Congress. The Congress can pass a Resolution of Disapproval and overturn the FCC’s vote. In a span of less that 24 hours, more than 1,200,000 calls have been made to the Congress, urging it to undo the FCC’s decision. 

The decision to remove net neutrality has caused shockwaves all over the world and will change the way we access the internet.

Let us know what you think about net neutrality and its removal in the comments below!