What’s Net Neutrality?

The internet plays an important part of our everyday life, whether for work, school, or for fun. Because of that. It is essential to understand what net neutrality is.

Net neutrality is the essential form of the “open internet.” Your ability to go to whatever legal websites you want, speedily, is your right. Those challenging net neutrality want to give power to telecom companies for them to slow down certain sites. The Federal Communications Commission, or F.C.C., is in charge of regulating telecommunications in all 50 states. The F.C.C. is led by five commissioners who are appointed by the president of the U.S. and then confirmed by the Senate. Only three of the commissioners can be from the same political party, and none of them can have anything to gain financially from their appointment. However, some argue that this is not the case, considering that current F.C.C. chair Ajit Pai used to work for Verizon.

Currently, net neutrality is a hot topic. Trump’s F.C.C. wants telecom companies, such as Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T, to have the ability to slow down information or websites. There are cases of telecom companies violating net neutrality–for example, AT&T breached net neutrality by limiting FaceTime access for those who were not a new and shared data plan. This is dangerous because the internet is an important place to find many different companies, viewpoints, and discussions. Net neutrality is important: it allows us to use the internet without other telecom companies tampering with certain websites and information. The internet should be able to exist beyond the realm of telecom company interests.

https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech/internet-speech/what-net-neutrality

https://www.fcc.gov/about-fcc/what-we-do

https://www.wired.com/2012/11/facetime-restrictions-lifted/