Net Neutrality: How Important Is It?
- GroovyHayley
- Jan 23, 2022
- 3 min read
The concept of Network Neutrality is that Internet service providers (ISPs) should provide free equal access and speed to all internet content, regardless of the website, application, user, or device. This principle supports freedom of speech, allowing viewers to access the internet without restricting or favoring certain pieces of content. With net neutrality in place, all online data is considered nondiscriminatory, which is beneficial to every single internet user. Without it, ISPs would have the ability to slow down, block, or even charge users to gain access into specific and prioritized data throughout the web.
On December 15th, 2017, the net neutrality rules set in place in 2015 were repealed by the FCC, officially kicking in on June 11th, 2018. With Open Internet Order net neutrality in place, consumers had the ability to browse the internet without distortion or prioritization, which gave them full freedom to research and purchase any product they chose. Prior to the repeal, on November 17th, 2017, over 200 different companies signed off on a letter to the FCC asking them to reconsider their plan to repeal net neutrality.
Among these companies opposing the Net Neutrality repeal were Airbnb, Automattic (owns WordPress), Etsy, Foursquare, Pinterest, Reddit, Shutterstock, Squarespace, Tumblr (owned by Verizon at the time), Twitter, Vimeo, and many more. With net neutrality now repealed, new companies are at a significant disadvantage and do not get the same opportunity to be seen by consumers as giant companies do. This is causing small businesses growth to be inhibited and ultimately negatively impacting the economy across the United States.
Consumers have lost easy access to millions of extremely innovative and creative products, and many small business owners have been forced to close down their businesses due to a lack of consumer reach. Owning an Etsy Shop myself, @GroovyEarthBoutique, I am in strong favor of net neutrality and feel the current state of net neutrality is very unfair to start-up businesses across the internet. The repeal has granted internet providers with the ability to charge companies and consumers different rates for faster internet access. ISPs can now slow down and block certain content from internet users, including limiting opposing opinions through the implementation of throttling speeds and paywalls. With the ISPs major increase in market control and resulting decline of small online businesses, producer competition and product variety for consumers have also been decreased significantly.
In March of 2018, Etsy, among 5 other large Tech companies sued the FCC over their decision to repeal net neutrality. The companies released a prepared statement saying, "The millions of entrepreneurs, creators, brands and businesses that these companies represent rely on a free and open internet to inform, support and express themselves, and to bring their ideas to the world,". Despite the numerous efforts to reverse the repeal, it is currently still in place and not only has it affected business owners and consumers, but all internet users as a whole.
The repeal of net neutrality has caused online information, including certain social media content, to be further suppressed and altered. Freedom of Speech is the First Amendment right in the United States Constitution, and protects citizens from government censorship. ISPs as well as social media platforms, however, are considered privately owned companies and have already implemented censorship into their sites. Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr are a few companies that currently censor certain content throughout their platforms. Limiting and restricting certain lawful user data is very dangerous, due to the fact it can skew reality and the ability for users to receive and convey information.
Net neutrality is very crucial to our society and entire nation. Internet users deserve to have the freedom of viewing all online platforms equally. Since it has been repealed, US citizens have been slowly losing their abilities to freely search the web, unfiltered. ISPs should not have the power to control what we are able to search and suppress or block information that they deem immoral. The playing field needs to be leveled back out and ISPs need to be held accountable by users for their discriminatory actions.
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