I’ve been hearing about Net Neutrality for a while now. Up until recently, I didn’t let it concern me and I never bothered to understand it. Suddenly, this morning, in gigantic letters across the internet, I started reading things like “the end of the internet as we know it”. That’s pretty heavy stuff, but what the hell does that mean and how does it effect me? I’ve decided that the best way for me to understand this was to put it in simple terms.

Net Neutrality via Wikipedia:

Network neutrality (also net neutrality, Internet neutrality) is a principle proposed for user access networks participating in the Internet that advocates no restrictions by Internet Service Providers and governments on content, sites, platforms, on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, and no restrictions on the modes of communication allowed.

From http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~raylin/whatisnetneutrality.htm

Simply put, net neutrality is a network design paradigm that argues for broadband network providers to be completely detached from what information is sent over their networks.

This basically means that the internet should remain as it is…the wild wild west: No laws, no rules, free speech. OK, that’s cool. So why is this being threatened and why do you have to worry about it?

We all know that corporations have way too much power as it is. They tell legislators what to do, they tell me what to buy. That’s all good and well, until they begin controlling the media as we’ve seen with FOX News. When you have a corporation telling you their version of a story (and only their version), you’re never sure what the truth is. In America, we tend to think there are two sides of every story. Right? At least I do. So what happens when mega-corporations band together and control the internet? They decide what you should see, hear, and how fast you should get it. But wait, don’t they already do that? Yes, some sights do and they control the content of their sites. What this could mean is that they control the content of all the sites. When you search for something on Google, Google will decide what it wants you to see. OK wait, but doesn’t Google already decide what it wants me to see? Yes. Google filters it’s search results in order to give you the information it thinks you want. It’s a pretty smart engine and but as far as I know, it’s not telling me what pages I can and cannot look at.

This could also mean that sites hosted by say, Verizon, would load faster than sites hosted with No Name Brand X. Why does this matter? For one, it’s stupid. Why should Verizon sites get the upper hand? Shouldn’t all sites load the same no matter who owns them? All sites should be equal in the eyes of the internet. This would also mean that bigger, more powerful companies make the rules. They decide, not you. It means that whatever Verizon or Google want you see, is what you will see. It could potentially mean that smaller search engine companies will be forced out of business.

Let’s say there’s a car race between two companies. Verizon, in this example, owns the race track and also own the cars being used in the race. Verizon, will obviously give their drivers a faster, better car. They might also tell their drivers what hazards the track poses and that you can only make 2 pit stops (I don’t actually know car races, so bear with me). Brand X, doesn’t have a choice. They’re given a Pinto and aren’t told the rules of the game. Verizon wins the race. Seems unfair, right? Well, duh. In this scenario, people watching the race won’t know Verizon had the upper hand and believe them to be a superior company, buying their services and products, while Brand X, looks like an idiot as his Pinto smokes to a finish 3 hours later.

That might have been a stupid example, but it basically means this: Corporations should not be able to buy the upper hand. The internet should be fair and everyone should have the same rules and access. What if the library told you which books you could check out? Right now, if you wanted to, you could start your own web hosting company from your bedroom and might do some nice business in your town. With these new rules allowing corporations carte blanche, you wouldn’t stand a chance. Right now, you can blog whatever you want, post videos of your cat dancing, watch porn, read news, and access whatever sites you want, even sites from competing companies. Say Verizon is allowed to do whatever it wants. They wouldn’t want you looking at AT&T’s site, so they’d make it load slower, put up road blocks, and ensure that the search engines always lead you to them.

Hmmm. Who else controls what the people read, see, and hear? Ummm, North Korea? If you want to know what no Net Neutrality really means, read 1984. How far can companies go? Do we really want to find out?

Here’s an even simpler way of putting it:

So many problem arise in this country because people sit on their asses and don’t speak up. We lose our rights and freedoms in small enough chunks that most people don’t notice until one day they’re all gone. Net Neutrality is just one scenario. You need to know about it, you need to get involved. That is, unless you want the corporations telling you how to live your life.

Save the Internet
http://www.savetheinternet.com/

Sen. Franken: Stop the Corporate Takeover of the Media