Should Net Neutrality Be Restored? – Top 3 Pros and Cons

Pro 1

Net neutrality preserves free speech on the internet by prohibiting internet service providers from blocking content.

ISPs may slow or block websites that disagree with the companies’ political viewpoints or interfere with their monetary interests. [2][7] FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel stated that the removal of net neutrality rules will give ISPs “extraordinary new power” and allow them “to censor online content.” [8] According to the 2014 D.C. Circuit court ruling, Verizon v. FCC, the power of ISPs to censor content is not “merely theoretical.” Before net neutrality was in place, instances of content censorship actually occurred, including two separate instances of broadband ISPs blocking access to voice over IP applications, and one instance of an ISP blocking an online payment service. [15] In 2014, President Obama stated that “an open Internet… has been one of the most significant democratizing influences the world has ever known,” and that if content is legal your ISP should not be allowed to block it. [33] The Electronic Freedom Foundation has argued that, “the meaningful exercise of our constitutional rights—including the freedoms of speech, assembly, and press—has become dependent on broadband Internet access.” This dependency makes net neutrality rules essential for a free society. [16]

Read More

Pro 2

Net neutrality protects consumers by preventing ISPs from speeding, slowing, or charging higher fees for select online content.

Allowing ISPs to speed or slow certain websites, or charge fees for fast lane access, may eventually trickle down to consumers in the form of higher internet costs. For example, a person who gets their internet service from Comcast could be charged extra fees to stream Netflix or Amazon (companies not owned by Comcast), while not being charged extra to stream NBC or Hulu (two companies that Comcast partially owns). [21] According to Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), without net neutrality, ISPs could “cabel-ize” the internet, meaning that “instead of paying a flat price for access to use any app or service free of charge, companies could start bundling services into ‘social,’ ‘video,’ and so on,” and consumers will have to pay for it. [23] On Apr. 27, 2017, one day after FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced the plan to eliminate net neutrality, Comcast (the largest US ISP) removed it’s pledge to not “prioritize internet traffic or create paid fast lanes” from its corporate website. [20][11]

Read More

Pro 3

Net neutrality promotes competition by providing a level playing field for new companies.

According to Internet Association President & CEO Michael Beckerman, “without net neutrality protections, startups would face discrimination from ISP owned or preferred content that’s granted a speed advantage through paid prioritization,” thus hurting competition and consumer choice. [18][29] When the FCC implemented net neutrality rules in 2015, it warned “that broadband providers hold all the tools necessary” to “degrade content, or disfavor the content that they don’t like.” [27] According to Ryan Singel, Fellow at the the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School, without net neutrality “broadband providers will be allowed to charge all websites and services, including startups, simply to reach an ISP’s subscribers. That’s a huge threat to the low cost of starting a company, and it totally up-ends the economics of the internet.” [17] A group of over 1,000 startup companies, innovators, and investors signed a petition to the FCC stating that “the success of America’s startup ecosystem depends… on an open Internet—including enforceable netneutrality rules.” [19] Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai said net neutrality principles must be protected “for the next set of entrepreneurs, building their services and trying to reach users.” [24]

Read More