Net Neutrality Explained: Will the Internet Always be Free?

    Net neutrality is the principle that internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites. The term was originally coined in 2003 by Columbia University Media Law student, Tim Wu. He saw ISP start banning users from using wireless routers and realized this unregulated abuse could have long-term consequences. ISP stands for internet service providers and they come in all forms such as; commercial, community-owned, non-profit, and privately owned. 

    In 2005 the FCC passed the first anti-discrimination law that prohibited ISPs from blocking legal content and preventing their customers from connecting more devices to the internet. This was a huge moment for net neutrality. However, in 2008 and 2010 the FCC was sued by Comcast and Verizon, losing both cases. The court decided that the FCC had no authority to regulate rules on the broadband providers because they were not common carriers. A common carrier is a person or business that provides services or products to the general public. When classified as information service providers instead of common carriers, broadband companies can avoid the FCC's rules. On February 26, 2015, the FCC ruled in favor of net neutrality by reclassifying broadband as a common carrier under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934 and Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act of 1966. Telecom companies continued to sue the FCC and appeal court decisions until finally the order was reversed under new FCC chairman Ajit Pai.     

    Sadly, all the work that had been accomplished was wiped out. Until finally in October 2019, the court sided with the FCC and upheld their decision to classify ISPs as they see fit. This meant under any leadership they could bring back net neutrality. Today each individual state is able to decide its view on net neutrality. This is proving to cause chaos because each state has different laws on net neutrality making it hard to provide service across state lines. Net neutrality has a lot of history and still has a long future ahead of it. Recently, nine states have introduced net neutrality legislation in the 2021 legislative session.

    Society as a whole would be affected greatly if net neutrality was not in place. It would benefit those who had money and were able to pay for better and faster websites. Poor households would struggle to have access to the internet. Especially with 55 million people living below the poverty line, this extra expense would do a lot of harm. I am economically in the middle class along with many of my friends, meaning we would be able to pay for faster internet for a small amount of time but end up not being able to. 

    Personally, I think that net neutrality is imperative in order to have free and open internet. People of all backgrounds have a way of expressing themselves through the internet and putting prices on that would be unacceptable. That is like asking somebody to pay to have access to their identity. This can also relate back to our lesson on censorship and how having differing viewpoints and opinions accessible for people to see is important to become a better citizen. 

    Net neutrality has many positive effects which is why people fight for it to stay. Without neutrality, high-speed internet for entertainment could be prioritized over education. ISP could start charging fees for public library websites making information less accessible for lower socio-economic groups.

Net neutrality helps to promote freedom of choice as ISP is not allowed to incentivize particular content. Lastly, net neutrality promotes a level playing field for competing companies. This is how smaller apps are able to become popular because they were not squashed from the beginning by bigger well-known applications. For example, Facebook and Youtube started off as small applications, and look what they have grown into now because net neutrality was in place. 

    With every upside comes a downside and net neutrality has negative impacts also. Regulation imposing net neutrality limits new business ideas and concepts and could be considered against free-market rules. Sponsored content can help companies improve their overall services. This allows the company to see what people are leaning toward and what content they do not like. Net neutrality also makes it more difficult to control what controversial adult content is seen on the internet. In addition, ISP is unable to filter fake news and disinformation because of net neutrality. 

   Net neutrality is one of the only principles that made the internet success and that's why it is important to save it. People take the availability of the internet for granted and most likely do not even know what net neutrality is.  Before researching this topic I was not aware that the internet that I access unknowingly could be something I have to pay for. This shocked me and hit me like a reality check. Net neutrality is an important topic that citizens of the United States should stay up to date with. Could you imagine not having free access to the internet?