https://netneutralityfp.weebly.com
Author: 1976hcc
The Net Neutrality challenge in America and around the world
INTRODUCTION
Net Neutrality the concept in which every data stream should be treated equally a challenge that the U.S is currently working on. It’s a very divided topic as many people oppose net neutrality witch most of them are big companies’ owners and executives as they have exclusivity deals and are the only option to some small towns it would ruin some of their business for them. Another big part of the population is in favor of it and most of the people don’t even know what net neutrality is, so they just automatically believe it’s a bad thing so in this blog were going to see how other states and countries handle this problem and possibly come with a possible outcome of it.
GROUP CONCEPT MAP CONNECTION
The most helpful source in the concept map for me was the one that talked about if the government needed to get involve and compared the U.S with other governments and what the people thought about it. It starts making a poll of what people thought about it and if whether they wanted it to be controlled by the government and the response didn’t vary in many countries as you may see in the graph most of the countries wanted it to be the government’s responsibility. It lets us see it from the perspective of other countries that haven’t controlled the issue.
GRAPH
So, now that we have seen what these smaller countries think about this it brings you to the question of what other developed countries think about this and how more developed are, compared with the U.S and what are these countries doing to fix it. Does the government control is the solution?
Example 1
Net neutrality is a challenge but yet the Brazilians have learned to manage it with an opened internet style “Brazil’s Civil Rights Framework for the Internet, enacted in 2014 and further refined in 2016, only allows internet service companies to prioritize certain types of traffic for technical reasons such as overloaded networking capacity or to allow network use by emergency services”.( https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-other-countries-deal-net-neutrality-180967558/)
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You would ask yourself why this is happening why do Brazilians have a free opened internet its because government has taken control of most of the net neutrality and internet but “Many Brazilian consumer rights groups are particularly alarmed because the companies receiving this privileged treatment are all large foreign corporations, including Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and music-streaming service Deezer “with all these companies mostly being American. Also, there are proposals in the works that would grant tens of millions of dollars in publicly owned telecommunications infrastructure to private companies for free. Brazilian internet freedom is further at risk because the country’s telecommunications companies are planning to insist that its regulators align with the weakened U.S. rules. (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-other-countries-deal-net-neutrality-180967558/)
Example 2
So how is this handled in Europe “The European Union approved strong rules in 2015, requiring companies that provide internet access to handle all traffic equally, leaving flexibility to restrict traffic when network equipment was operating at its maximum capacity. EU rules also allow traffic restrictions to protect network security and handle emergency situations.” In 2016, European Union electronic communications regulators detailed potential problems in agreements between telecommunications companies and content providers. And they explained that quality of service could vary, but no specific applications should be discriminated against. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-other-countries-deal-net-neutrality-180967558/
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It’s a whole different thing in Europe that gives them an advantage as of 2017, they highlighted the importance of Europe’s emphasis on proactively monitoring compliance with net neutrality rules, rather than waiting for violations to happen before reacting. This gives European residents much stronger consumer protection than exists in the U.S. and stops exclusivity deals and high paid services.
Example 3
So, what is Russia’s take on the situation, “despite a tightening of its already heavy online censorship, passed net neutrality laws in 2016. The recent legislation focuses on nondiscriminatory access to content—that is, the content not censored by the government, which is itself a sizable list. Russia’s regulation demonstrates more than most situations that net neutrality isn’t the whole issue. A neutral approach to data doesn’t mean any data is permissible, and a government can still choose to block access to large swaths of Internet sites if it can do so”. https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/internet/countries-around-the-world-tackled-net-neutrality-in-different-ways So is it really free and opened internet is the government taking control of it really the solution.
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As you could see the Net neutrality problem for them is almost inexistent but have other problems going on so when comparing to the U.S How does it handle net neutrality “Net neutrality protections might not be so necessary if the broadband market were more competitive. But 29 percent of Americans have no options for getting high-speed wired internet service at home. Another 47 percent have just one choice and 20 percent have just two”.https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-other-countries-deal-net-neutrality-180967558/
The U.S is still working on an agreement for net neutrality but not as a top priority.
Conclusion
So is the U.S better off if Net Neutrality would be controlled by the government? I personally believe it would improve as it would be treated equally and there would be no exclusivity deals as its on Europe with a free opened internet but first, it wouldn’t be possible as the FCC would never give full control to the government to do such a thing and too many big companies are involved on it.
Net Neutrality on a political view and why hasn’t been fixed
Net Neutrality a relative newer topic that would be hard to regulate as when the constitution was formed, they never really imagined the internet. When it comes to this topic is very narrow and broad as according to the (Regulating the Media by OpenStax American Government) “The media act as informants and messengers, providing the means for citizens to become informed and serving as a venue for citizens to announce plans to assemble and protest actions by their government. Yet the government must ensure the media are acting in good faith and not abusing their power. Like the other First Amendment liberties, freedom of the press is not absolute. The media have limitations on their freedom to publish and broadcast”. This tries to explain that all the media regulations that include net neutrality are confined to a very small part of the constitution it’s these that make it so hard to control.
This is the moment when the FCC comes in to play it all starts with a 1927 radio act it was the first attempt at regulating the broadcast then it was changed to the communication act of 1934 trying to include everything surrounding the media and communications later that year a more efficient way to do it was created on that same year the FCC started Federal Communications commissions (Regulating the Media by OpenStax American Government) “the FCC was given the same authority to license and monitor television stations. The FCC now also enforces ownership limits to avoid monopolies and censors’ materials deemed inappropriate. It has no jurisdiction over print media, mainly because print media are purchased and not broadcast”.
So, what would the government think about all these net neutrality and FCC issue in the past government President Barack Obama was going to support it and develop it since day one compared with the actual government what Donald trump did first was he (https://www.thenation.com/article/trump-court-internet/) “immediately attacked the foundations of a free and open Internet. He did this by putting in place a Federal Communications Commission chairman and an FCC majority that overturned net neutrality protections with the commission’s 2017 vote to eliminate what advocates identify as The First Amendment of the Internet.”
For example, this graph explains what most politicians think about the topic
As you can see what most politicians think regardless of the party there at they all come up with the same conclusion they don’t want net neutrality because its great for everyone in general but it’s bad business for the companies as they wouldn’t have exclusivity deals or advantage from others it all would be treated equally.
This opens debate and a question of why hasn’t been solved it’s simple it has not been solved for several reasons one of them is that politicians have not been in favor of Net Neutrality through the years and people do not support it because they don’t know what it is. (https://www.cnet.com/news/net-neutrality-battle-lives-on-what-you-need-to-know-after-the-appeals-court-decision/)”The majority of Americans agree that some kind of net neutrality protections is a good idea. They also agree it’s not good public policy to allow this issue to continue to ping-pong at the FCC based on which party is in control, Republicans oppose the bill, saying they’re still worried the FCC will have too much control over the internet. And they’re pushing for a bipartisan compromise.”
Its really complicated as everyone is divided on the topic (https://www.cnet.com/news/net-neutrality-battle-lives-on-what-you-need-to-know-after-the-appeals-court-decision/)” While it’s clear the bill would have an uphill battle in the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, Democrats were able to pass a Congressional Review Act resolution in the Senate last year that would’ve repealed the FCC’s order to dismantle the 2015 rules. But it’s unlikely any Republicans will defect again to pass this legislation”.It’s a complicated issue because the democrats think differently if they get to the power they will possibly try and restore it but it’s even hard in those circumstances.
Is there a chance this net neutrality issue could be solved (https://www.cnet.com/news/net-neutrality-battle-lives-on-what-you-need-to-know-after-the-appeals-court-decision/)”As we enter the 2020 presidential election year, several Democrats seeking the nomination for president have already said they would appoint FCC commissioners who would restore net neutrality. If Democrats regain control of the White House, the FCC will most likely reinstate rules”.
In conclusion Net Neutrality its an ongoing issue that cant is solved easily as many parts have to move at the right time and at the right moment what also affects is the knowledge the people have to understand this topic.
The importance of net Neutrality
Net Neutrality a confusing concept to many people nowadays that people tend to be against it because they don’t really know the concept. Net neutrality is the concept that all the data should be treated equally. The term network neutrality started many years ago back in 2002. The concept was floated in response to efforts by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a United States regulatory body, to require broadband providers to share their infrastructure with competing firms. The Supreme Court struck down the FCC regulation in 2005.
The regulation had been whether broadband service providers were considered information services, which allows users to publish and store information on the Internet, or telecommunication services. In 2015, under the Obama Administration, net neutrality rules were approved. Those rules, in part, were bad for the internet service providers like AT&T and Comcast from deliberately speeding up or slowing down traffic to or from specific websites based on demand or business preferences it ruined the business for them. On November 21, 2017, Ajith Pai, the Chairman of the FCC appointed by President Trump, unveiled a plan to roll back the rules set forth by the prior administration.
The picture above basically explains the concept of net neutrality by itself. It’s a great example of how net neutrality works and an easy picture so everyone can really understand the concept. The existing rules change places primary jurisdiction over internet service providers network management practices under the Federal Trade Commission and state from enacting similar ISP network restrictions as found in the 2015 Open Internet Order.
Big networks that are against net neutrality suggest that by not allowing ISP to determine the speed at which consumers can access specific websites or services, smaller companies will be more likely to enter the market and create many more companies. This is because smaller companies may not be able to afford to pay for fast lane access, everyone would be the same while larger, more established companies would have the same and it would hurt them because there would be no exclusivity.
What is the FCC it’s The Federal Communications Commission is an independent Federal regulatory agency that is responsible for Established by the Communications Act of 1934, it is charged with regulating interstate and international communications. Its jurisdiction covers the 50 states and territories, the District of Columbia, and U.S. Possessions. They are the ones responsible for providing almost everything that goes through them.
To conclude net neutrality is something good and we all should be with it not against it like I said at the beginning one of the net neutrality biggest problem is that people don’t know what it is and think its something bad and vote against it.
Citations
Net Neutrality. Https://Www.investopedia.com/Terms/n/Net-Neutrality.asp, https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/net-neutrality.asp.
Net Neutrality 2019 Legislation. Http://Www.ncsl.org/Research/Telecommunications-and-Information-Technology/Net-Neutrality-2019-Legislation.aspx, http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/net-neutrality-2019-legislation.aspx.
The Federal Communication Comissions (FCC). Https://Www.ntia.doc.gov/Book-Page/Federal-Communications-Commission-Fcc, https://www.ntia.doc.gov/book-page/federal-communications-commission-fcc.