The point of this blog is to inform readers of net neutrality, and the situation the internet is currently in. This is to give more information surrounding the people in favor of repeal and why this topic is important to the public, as the information about this topic has been misunderstood.

Net neutrality is the idea of the internet being a service that does not discriminate, being available to access to anyone without the interference of arbitrary latency (https://www.publicknowledge.org/issues/net-neutrality/). This concept of how the internet should work has been the normality for quite a bit of time, but broadband companies in the United States have pushed the Federal Communication Commission into deciding to repeal net neutrality. If their plans go into effect, the internet as we know it would change drastically to account for the demands necessary to stay relevant, and the public’s access towards the internet would change. As stated earlier, the traffic of internet latency would be directly influenced by service providers, but in addition to controlling internet latency, the websites you can go through can be directly influenced due to this control. Internet service providers can effectively charge for how you want to stream the internet, blocking certain websites if the website wasn’t bought together in a bundle, similar to how cable television can sell certain television shows and block other shows because it wasn’t included in the plan (https://www.wired.com/2017/02/fcc-oks-streaming-free-net-neutrality-will-pay/). However, this system wouldn’t work to the internet, as the smaller independent websites lack the freedom to participate in this system, killing competition and eventually leading to a lack of content control of these potential monopoly websites.

Ajit Pai, Chairman of the FCC

The potential repeal of net neutrality has always been a problem to internet users since the access to the internet became available to the public but, with the introduction of Ajit Pai, the current chairman of the FCC, the influences of big broadband companies such as AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon have actively pushed towards repealing net neutrality more actively in 2017. Ajit Pai became a notable person in favor of repealing net neutrality most likely for his former position in Verizon as a Associate General Counsel, but becoming the chairman of the FCC gave him a high position of power in the government that would directly influence media outlets, and in our case, the internet. With Ajit also being a republican in a republican dominated house and senate, it was a unanimous decision that could only be influenced by the voters demanding that their representatives vote to keep net neutrality, but the decision would ultimately be final, as the vote to repeal net neutrality was made in December 14, 2017.

Though the United States has repealed net neutrality, the possibility of returning net neutrality is a possibility. (https://www.vox.com/2019/4/10/18302186/net-neutrality-house-bill-senate) The save the internet act was passed into the senate back in April, showing a demand to bring back net neutrality. The downside to this act passing the senate is the approval of the president and House of Representatives, both of whom are unlikely to sign the bill into passing. Though, given enough time, this would likely mean that net neutrality could return and remove the repeal of net neutrality.

With the internet being an important source of content in our everyday lives, the repeal of net neutrality could possibly lead to an unstable control of the internet, lacking the competition necessary for a capitalist society to thrive. But without the proper information, the battle for net neutrality would be meaningless, thus combating this lack of understanding helps push the control of these broadband companies back so that one day, net neutrality could return, or if it doesn’t, a compromise that could meet those in favor and against net neutrality.