The Battle for Net Neutrality
Last January 14, 2014, a Washington D.C. court ruled out the Federal Communications Commission’s regulation on Open Internet or more popularly known as net neutrality. The decision on the case sparked debate between those fighting for net neutrality and the companies who want to take advantage of the internet’s popularity. This was a victory for Verizon, an Internet Service Provider, and other companies like it. In her article, Net Not Free for All, Aviva Rutkin writes that “information will no longer be free, but governed by the whims of big business” (Rutkin 24). She is right. These big companies will be able to make more profit by charging for faster service. And, on the other hand, the verdict is considered a loss for internet-based companies, especially start-up businesses, who will have to pay to keep the quality of their products up or it will lead to decline in customers therefore losing more profit. Sooner or later, this power play will affect the regular internet users who will end up paying more to use specific services that will require high-speed connection. Net neutrality contributed to the world’s modernization, protected internet users’ rights and kept business opportunities equal for both small and big companies therefore it is important that it is re-established and maintained.
The principle of net neutrality has been present since the internet was invented in 1989. In a video posted on The Guardian, Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, spoke about how he had created the internet to be an “open, neutral system” (“World”). And, with that in mind, the Federal Communications Commission adopted the Open Internet Rules. This was set to ensure that the World Wide Web “remains a...
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...urn, users will continue to enjoy its vast services.
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When we think of those skilled in the art of rhetoric, we often jump to those we know are trying to convince us of something, like politicians, salesmen, lawyers, etc. We do not always consider corporate CEOs part of that group though Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, would have us believing another thing. On March 20th, 2014, Hastings published an article titled “Internet Tolls And The Case For Strong Net Neutrality” on Netflix’s official blog. Just under a month before the blog was posted, Netflix settled a deal paying Comcast, America’s largest cable and Internet service provider (ISP), for faster and more reliable service to Comcast’s subscribers (Cohen and Wyatt). These “internet tolls” go against the culture of net neutrality in America, which in its essence is when no piece of information is prioritized over another on broadband networks. Hastings took to their blog to advocate for net neutrality and against abusive ISPs. Whether he was conscious of his rhetorical finesse or not, he wrote quite convincingly thus turning this blog into an excellent rhetorical artifact. Reed Hastings’ blog post aims to convince American Internet consumers that strong net neutrality is important by appealing to their values of choice, frugality and empathy while simultaneously making ISPs seem ill intentioned and Netflix seem honorable.
Although the net neutrality debate didn’t come into the spot light so long ago, it has sparked controversy in the communications world. This concept provides a positive impact to the consumers, competition and network owners/internet service providers. It broadens the aspect of equality, which the open Internet was first based on. The profound effects on the aforementioned players provide a supported purpose to regulate the notion of net neutrality.
A recent and hotly debated topic among businesses, politicians, and internet users in the United States is that of net neutrality. With the rise of the internet over the past few decades, laws and regulations have struggled to keep up with the ever changing environment. As such, the problem of whether net neutrality should be enforced, and to what extent, has been a dividing issue. This problem has come into the public’s attention recently due to infringements and controversy surrounding policies by Internet Service Providers (ISPs). In the following paragraphs, I plan to first define the concept of net neutrality, related topics which are crucial for an informed ethical discussion of the topic, and also related cases in which net neutrality
On thursday The Federal Communications Commission voted to end net neutrality. A Lot of people were not happy with their decision, some states and interest groups are planning to sue. Back in october 29, 2007 Barack Obama pledged support for net neutrality to protect free and open internet, later on in 2015 the FCC voted in favor of strong net neutrality rules to keep the internet open and free. Now 3 men decided to go against it causing the end of net neutrality and ignoring 83% of peoples wishes.
Tim Wu is known as “the father of Net Neutrality” for first coining the term “Net Neutrality”. He is a professor at Columbia Law School and the director of the Poliak Center at Columbia Journalism School. He commonly talks about other topics such as copyright, private power and free speech. Wu believes that net neutrality can prevent companies and carriers to offer “special” treatment to one specific provider instead of another. According to Wu, Net Neutrality benefits anyone in some way and believes that Internet transparency is critical because carriers fail to tell what services they provide for the user. At the core of Net neutrality, there is a free speech principle. It allows speakers and innovators to reach people that they would not
The monopolistic nature of the internet service industry is often cited as a reason for net neutrality. Current internet technology tends to limit consumer options when choosing an ISP. To gain access to high speed internet services, consumers need to be directly connected to the ISP’s network through some variety of cable technology. This discourages ISP’s from building multiple overlapping networks and creates barriers for new entrants to the market. Building a network that can service a large group of consumers requires large amounts of capital and the incumbent service providers can lower their prices which makes
Net neutrality was the big talk towards the end of 2017. Taking away net neutrality would cause chaos in my opinion. Making schools and other organizations pay to use technology only discourages them from doing so which is a major step backwards in such a technological point in time. The world is constantly creating new ways to implement technology to our everyday lives and charging us to do so is not a step in the right direction. Saying that getting rid of net neutrality will do away with discrimination is absurd. Discrimination was around way before the internet was but instead we once again have one political party trying to undermine the other by playing the victim. I do agree that it isn’t right that such huge corporations such as
The World Wide Web started as an idea that focused around the government’s need to communicate if there was a real war. In 1964 the Cold War was at its peak, the Advanced Researched Projects Agency, or ARPA began researching and developing a way to get computers to “communicate with each other,” this is how it all started (The Internet's History and Development). The government scientists who were, “developing networking technology in the 1960's knew that what they were building would be far bigger than themselves; nobody, however, could have predicted the explosion in Internet access and interest in the past several years” (The Internet’s History and Development).
Leiner, Barry. "Internet." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2013
Schmidt, E. E., & Cohen, J. (2014, March 11). The Future of Internet Freedom. Retrieved September 26, 2017, from
With an entity as vast as the Internet, it is not surprising that a variety of unanswered questions will arise. I’m positive that the Internet will continue to confound scholars as it continues to quickly evolve. By analyzing the views of the celebrants and skeptics, I have been able to understand the potential that the internet has. By using the PEC, I have been able to understand how democracy and capitalism relate to the issues of the Internet. In the future, I hope that society can develop a further understanding of the Internet and move toward the Internet that the celebrants had hoped for.
Lanier, Jaron. "The False Ideals of the Web." New York Times. 30 Jan. 2012. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.
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Gabbel, Alfred S. "How the Internet Changed Our World." Science and Technology June 2004: 73-75.