Save Network Neutrality Again

The arguments are no different than they were the last time.

Network Neutrality is the bedrock of freedom in the Internet Age. Network neutrality is an essential requirement to protect freedom of speech in the Internet Age.

Network neutrality means that the network shall treat traffic passing through it the same, regardless of source or destination. A neutral network does not favor one customer over another, giving priority to the one favored by the network while blocking or reducing access to others.

It doesn’t mean a company can’t create service tiers and sell more bandwidth for more money. ISPs already do this. Companies that need to use a lot of network traffic pay for the capacity already.

Network neutrality is the way the internet has worked since the very beginning. Over the years, there have been a number of efforts made to end network neutrality. ISPs have relentlessly tried to end network neutrality because doing so will give them a huge amount of power over the internet, which they will use to make themselves very rich and control the world’s data traffic. The consequences of this would be drastic and dystopian.

Internet Service Providers should be treated as a utility and as a common carrier. We need this put into law so that it does not come up every few years when regulatory appointees change. That will not happen with our current congress or president.

But as I write this, the freedoms protected by network neutrality are once again under assault by the FCC. Current FCC Chair Ajit Pai is a former executive with Verizon, and in his current role is a fox guarding the hen house. He clearly is working in the interest of large ISPs and against the public good. If he and two others vote yes to end network neutrality, it’s all over.

All we can do is tell them we don’t want that. Contact the FCC right now and leave a comment. Call, write, fax, and email.

While you’re at it, tell Congress that you want legislation that will protect network neutrality.

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