Thursday’s the day. On December 14, The Federal Communications Commission will vote on the fate of net neutrality and the internet as we know it in the United States could change forever.
In short, if the vote passes, companies like Comcast and Verizon will have the power to divvy up the internet, much like your cable provider requires you to select what channels you want to watch and then charges you based on what package you select.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, since you’ve definitely seen some impassioned posts and Twitter trending topics about this for a while, let’s break it down:
What is net neutrality?
Net neutrality, or network neutrality, is open internet. It’s the belief that all Internet providers should give access to all legal content and applications equally. This means that internet service providers cannot block or slow down specific sites or allow companies to pay for special treatment. In short, it’s just allowing people who pay for internet access, access to the entire internet without paying additional or hidden fees. (Yes, it’s that simple.)
So what would a vote against net neutrality mean?
With the current regulations in place Internet providers are not allowed to charge you extra to visit websites like Facebook, Netflix, YouTube or HerCampus.com. And in turn, Internet providers are not allowed to charge websites like Facebook, Netflix, YouTube (and, yeah, even HC) to prioritize their traffic over other services they offer.
However, if tomorrow’s vote were to pass, Internet providers could begin to harness their money into power and make you pay extra to stream videos at a high enough rate so you could view them or make you pay extra to access your favorite websites.
What
if
one
party
controlled
two
branches
of
government
and
you
wanted
to
protest
them
but
the
page
you
were
using
to
organize
it
loaded
one
word
at
a
time?
Let’s #BreakTheInternet so the FCC hears us. Call Congress now. https://t.co/A3djW7UpN5
— ACLU (@ACLU) December 12, 2017
The ACLU’s website described the vote as, “The quest for profits and corporate disfavor of controversial viewpoints could change both what you can see on the internet and the quality of your connection.” In other words, if you want Netflix to continue asking, “Are you still watching?” as you binge “The Crown” this Christmas break, this vote is crucial.
What’s The December 14th Vote About?
Under the Obama administration, net neutrality was the law of the land. On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission will vote to either uphold or repeal that. The FCC is made up of five commissioners appointed by the President. The current commission is skewed three to two in favor of President Donald Trump and the Republican Party —and current predictions have many thinking it will take something short of a Christmas miracle to see the vote go in favor of upholding the current regulations.
So what is the FCC’s role in this?
The FCC is much like a referee in a heated game between internet providers and websites. While we (the spectators or internet users) don’t want to be left hanging if the game goes into overtime or a fight breaks out, the presence of the ref helps keep the game moving and keeps everything fair. However, if the vote to repeal net neutrality were to pass the FCC would be shrugging off that duty of regulating the internet provider/website relationship.
With the referee of the game gone, it would soon be a free for all — with the stronger team crushing the smaller team. (Something tells us Mike Pence wouldn’t walk out of that game.)
And what the heck happened with public comments?
This is where things get messier. Turns out, during the open comment period, nearly 2 million of the comments filed to the FCC were faked and fraudulently filed under the identities of Americans without their consent, according to a letter from the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
This comes after Bloomberg News previously reported that more than 400,000 of those comments came from Russian and German email addresses and long after Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel tweeted that “There’s something not right in the @FCC record on #NetNeutrality. Bots, bogus comments, and stolen names. A questionable distributed denial of service attack the @USGAO is investigating…” and linking to an open letter from Schneiderman.
As we’ve told the FCC: moving forward with this #netneutrality vote would make a mockery of our public comment process and reward those who perpetrated this fraud to advance their own hidden agenda.
— Eric Schneiderman (@AGSchneiderman) December 13, 2017
So AG Schneiderman has been pretty adamant about not holding the vote based on these potentially fraudulent comments. Because, like, duh.
So, is there any hope?
If the vote to repeal net neutrality does pass, lawsuits against the FCC would quickly emerge from all sides stating that the FCC is not doing their basic duty. Ad Week put it this way, “In light of the decision, the agency will have to redefine its mission and may have to work with the rest of the federal government to implement new laws. The court also found that there is a basic mandate for the FCC to “promulgate rules governing broadband providers.”
So the silver lining to all of this is that even if the vote does go in favor of a repeal, we can expect see numerous lawsuits that would require the FCC to continue to do their job and uphold a civil and fair game for all involved.