Net Neutrality: Why You Should Care About It Going online with some expectations is quite obvious and one among them is to be connected to whatever website you wish to. When you are using the internet you expect Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality is the basic way to prohibit internet service providers like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon to speed up, slow down or block any content, applications or websites you wish to use. Net Neutrality is a way that the internet has always worked. In 2015, millions of people put pressure on the FCC to adopt Net Neutrality rules to keep the internet free and open and allow you to share and access information of your choosing without interference. But presently this win is in danger as Trump’s FCC chairman, Ajit Pai, wants to demolish Net Neutrality. In May, the FCC voted to allow Pai’s internet-killing plan go ahead. The agency got flooded with over 20 million comments and the major portion of people commented on an urge towards the FCC to preserve the existing rules of Net Neutrality. Time is less: The FCC would vote on Pai’s proposal on Dec. 14. Join the millions who already voiced their opinion against it. What is Net Neutrality? Net Neutrality is internet’s guiding principle which preserves our right to free communication, online. Net Neutrality means an internet which enables and protects freedom of speech. It means ISPs must provide us with open networks and mustn’t block or prejudice against any content that is found in those networks. Your phone company mustn’t decide whom you call and what you must say on that call, your ISP must not interfere with the content you view or post online. Without Net Neutrality, cable and phone companies can sculpt the internet into fast and slow lanes. An ISP can slow down its competitors’ content or block any political opinion it disagrees with. Consequence of lost Net Neutrality The internet without Net Neutrality isn’t an internet at all. The open internet actually paved the way for so many innovations and gave a platform to people who have been historically shut out, it would become a shutdown network where cable and phone companies claim the shots and decide which content, websites or applications succeed. This will have an enormous impact. Companies like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon can take a decision on whom to be heard and who isn’t. They can block websites or content they don’t like or applications that can compete with what the offering. The consequences can be devastating for marginalized communities whom media misrepresented or failed to serve. People of colour, the LGBTQ community, indigenous peoples and religious minorities in the United States depend on the open internet to organize, access economic and educational opportunities, and fight back against discriminations.
Without Net Neutrality, activists cannot fight oppression! There will be no social movements like the Movement for Black Lives? How will the next disruptive business, technology or company emerge if internet service providers only allow holders succeed? Didn’t we win strong Net Neutrality rules? After a long battle over the future of the internet, the FCC adopted strong Net Neutrality rules which depend on Title II of the Communications Act, giving internet users the strongest protections possible. But since then several people tried their best to destroy Net Neutrality. And Chairman Pai, a previous Verizon lawyer is moving forward to destroy the open internet. Don’t you think he must be stopped? The significance of Title II. Courts already rejected two earlier FCC attempts to trade Net Neutrality rules and told the agency to use proper legal foundation, i.e. Title II for any protection. In 2015, the FCC provided internet users strong rules for Net Neutrality and classified the providers of broadband as common carriers under Title II. Title II gives the FCC an authority it needs to make sure that companies like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon can’t block the interfere with web traffic. Title II preserves internet’s level playing field, allow people to share and find information about their choice. But Chairman Pai wants to discard Title II and give the FCC to slight touch the Title I approach. Pai wants to provide control of the internet to the companies which violated Net Neutrality for years before the FCC adopted its current rules in the year 2015. Title I fails to protect internet users like us. Who is attacking Net Neutrality? Big phone and cable companies and their influencers filed a suit against the Net Neutrality rules. Free Press got into it and placed an argument, defending the FCC and on June 14, 2016, a federal appeals the court to uphold the open-internet protections in every way. The ISPS are yet trying to challenge these rules in court. Within the time, industry-funded Net Neutrality opponents in the Congress have done their best to deconstruct or undermine the rules. Legislators also introduced several deceptive bills and attached destroying riders to the must-pass government-funding bills. There are millions of people who spoke in support of Net Neutrality got fired up and ready to fight back and you can join them in this universal pursuit. Why is Net Neutrality so essential for communities of colour? The open access of internet helped them to express their own stories and get together for racial and social justice. With net neutrality, people can summon thousands of people in the streets at a second’s notice, it’s because ISPs don’t block their messages or websites. The mainstream media always misrepresented, ignored and harmed the people of color. The lack of various ownership is a primary reason why they got an away with stereotyping communities of color. The open internet permits people of other vulnerable communities to bypass conventional media sentinels. Without Net Neutrality, ISPs can block speech and prevent protestor voices from speaking freely, online. Without Net Neutrality, people of color will lose a vital platform.
In absence of Net Neutrality, several small businesses, which are owned by people of color can’t compete against larger corporations online, which would lead to economic disparities. Why Net Neutrality is essential for businesses? It is significant for start-ups, small business owners, and entrepreneurs, who depend on the open internet to launch their businesses, develop markets, advertise their services, and reach out to the customers. An open internet is needed to foster job growth, competition, and innovations. No company must be allowed to interfere with a marketplace. ISPs are the internet’s sentinels and without it, they would grab every opportunity needed to profit from that sentinel position. Without Net Neutrality, another Facebook or Google can never flourish. What to be done now? Chairman Pai is eager to replace the agency’s strong rules with conditions which no ISP would ever obey with. Pai revealed his plan in a closed-room meeting with industry influencers in April 2017 and officially initiated a proceeding on May 18, 2017, when FCC voted along the party lines to take ahead this proposal. Since then millions of comments were written on the agencies’ website from the internet users who want to keep the protections safe. Pai is totally ignoring the public outcry, and the FCC will vote on this Net Neutrality-killing plan on Dec. 14. So it’s time to urge the agency to trench this plan and tell the members of Congress to denounce Pai’s attack on the open internet. If we lose Net Neutrality, several wrong influencers will get an upper hand. Time is less, you need to act soon! With this, we conclude. Keep visiting our website ForumMantra and remain connected to like our Facebookpage or follow us on Twitter.