peer review

Dr. William Matter

Subject Name

05 March 2018

Since the early nineties the use of the internet has increased substantially due to the increase of media such as video and mp3’s. The ability to share and receive these formats has become so easy due to websites like youtube, spotify, facebook and other social media companies. Thes sites cause a lot of traffic, or large internet activity, by using more bandwidth. ISP’s or Internet Service Providers like Verizon and AT&T sold the right use these activities so there content would only be available through them. Net neutrality is the principle that all content whether it be sites or services should treated equally without any bias based on user activity, content, brand, application or communication. This contentedly forced ISP’s to not make deals with companies to allow a better traffic speed for their content by charging at a higher rate.

After a vote by the FCC, Federal Communications Commission, to remove the Net Neutrality,an uproar of support towards a free internet exploded. These Rule restricted ISP’s from slowing down sites or charging access to higher priority companies. While this is not going to cause changes so soon. It presumably means companies will be able to not only charge you for the inter service you use but also the sites and services we use on a daily basis.

Big name companies should not have the right to be able to discriminate lesser used net services,due to the lack of usage or popularity. For some companies this topic is seen as a desirable way to improve quality because they are bigger companies with more money. This can be equally, if not more so, harmful to smaller companies just starting up. Many internet application companies like Google,Reddit,eBay,Amazon etc support net neutrality regulation.Google in 2008 stated, opposing market power of broadband providers to control access to their content and other applications. These Site favor an open Internet. Every site or company should have equal opportunity for customers to have access to content across the entire world wide web.

Many of these companies are starting to fight back, “Several tech companies including Etsy, Kickstarter, Foursquare and Shutterstock filed a petition on Monday afternoon challenging the Federal Communications Commission's rollback of net neutrality protections”. (Horrowitz,Tech Companies).

Any news, website or forum is accessible under net neutrality, given it has legality to exist. Theoretically ISP’s can charge you more or less to use these services. An open internet allows friendly and EQUAL competition, this ensures that a company has un-altered access to their content and level the playing field for larger companies to be treated the same as small start-ups.

Portugal, sadly, does not have net neutrality. Their services charge users by the month for using apps and websites. MEO, an ISP there, charge five euro every month to use individual types of content such as messaging, social, video, music etc.. With Net Neutrality, Netflix can’t pay for easier access to their content, and free sites like Reddit can be equally as fast. Daily sites like email and banking wouldn’t cost more to use just because you need them more. Net Neutrality protected everyone from fast lane connections or limited access without payment.

Certain sites need or use bandwidth more so than others, ISP’s argue they would “have less money to spend on upgrading their networks….If they could charge Google, Microsoft, et al for carrying their resource-intensive services”(Curtis,The pros and Cons) to allow a stronger connection all around, but this system we currently use has been working just fine since The World, first ISP, started in 1989.

A few opposers believe that allowing them to block access to our content could stop age-sensitive content being easily attainable to youths. However, all ISP’s Currently allow you to block these sites or any sites for that matter using your router's gateway by simply going through and putting on parental control settings. While most parents probably do not how to do so, they can just as easy call the companies of who's services they use and ask them for help or to do so. Smartphones can be blocked by using these same steps.

“Or how about Google and Skype? They've created services that let people make phone calls—for free—on networks that we spent billions to build. Why shouldn't all those services pay their share?...Because net neutrality protects innovation. If big companies such as Netflix and Google could pay to get special treatment—faster speeds, more bandwidth—little startups would be at a disadvantage.”(Pogue, The Net Neutrality Debate). Services like hulu, skype, and gaming platform use large amounts of bandwidth for free through ISP’s networks. Even though companies do this, we already pay a large amount and have the option to pay more for better bandwidth. This should be the line.

Anything can be posted anywhere on the internet, this is covered under our freedom of speech. Meaning our internet is uncensored, but as previously discussed we can already control these things.

The FCC is trying to limit americans free speech to support big name companies who pay them. We need to realize this is not only an appalling way to allow monopolies, but also an attack on our first amendment and our Constitution. The united states government is becoming the worst monopoly of all, we need them to know that this should not be allowed and as a population need to stand up for what this country was built on. The process has already started with Washington who has passed a law protecting its citizens against big name services provider. With more states support we can force them to repeal this atrocity unfairly brought above us.

Works Sited

Curtis, Joe. “The Pros and Cons of Net Neutrality.” IT PRO, IT PRO, 13 Feb. 2017, www.itpro.co.uk/strategy/28115/the-pros-and-cons-of-net-neutrality.

Horowitz, Julia. “Tech Companies Take the FCC to Court over Net Neutrality Repeal.”CNNMoney, Cable News Network, 5 Mar. 2018, 3:49 pm, money.cnn.com/2018/03/05/technology/net-neutrality-kickstarter-etsy-foursquare-lawsuit/index.html.