The year is 2018, it’s finals season and the time is nearing 11:59pm. You rush to seek help from your wise old friend, Quizlet. But being the telenovela that is your life, the webpage won’t load. The circle buffer thing keeps spinning, but no content is appearing. Then you realize, you no longer have access to the website. It sounds like a nightmare, but can easily become reality.
On December 14, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission will vote on their final decision regarding Net Neutrality. But what exactly are these two words that hold so much importance? I am no expert, but I am surely an active user and lover of the Internet. In a nutshell, Net Neutrality laws allow people to have free, unrestricted access to any and all websites that are deemed legal. With this in place, you are free to continue procrastinating your studying to binge watch Netflix as you please.
While we may all have different service providers, the access granted to the Internet is the same across the board. Without Net Neutrality in place, these providers can throttle, monitor and restrict the Internet. We already pay for Internet connection, Netflix (which has increased, if I do say so), Hulu and other fees that come with adulting. Now Imagine being worried about what you can access, or if you even have money to buy that access back.
If Net Neutrality is removed, instead of one general law for roaming the Internet (equal access for everyone), it would be multiple specific cases depending on the service providers. In other words, companies like Xfinity, Verizon and Time Warner would have the power to control access as they see fit. To further exemplify this, as seen in Portugal, service providers are splitting Internet access into packages (for my visual learners, check out the image below). Without Net Neutrality in place, these providers will be economically thriving at the expense of manipulating the consumers.
Inform yourself of what is going on. Be knowledgeable, be interested, be involved. One person can make a huge impact.
If you consider the Topic of saving Net Neutrality of importance, there are various petitions and action groups available to join.
1. https://act.eff.org/action/congress-don-t-sell-the-internet-out
2. Resistbot: Text “RESIST” to 504-09
Photography credits: Cover Photo