This all sounds a bit fishy– The FCC and it’s current chair Ajit Pai, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, have announced a vote to repeal Net Neutrality next month. This announcement comes during the week of Thanksgiving, and while we have known this was Mr.Pai’s intent for quite some time, this planned announcement doesn’t really help the outlook.
Repealing Net Neutrality would put the internet into what some have called the dark ages and will lead to more for less, and in order to get the same speeds we know today it will cost a lot more. This repeal, if it passes next month, would be a huge win for companies like Comcast and Verizon, who have been fighting these rules for quite some time. They don’t want the internet to be open; they would rather see certain lanes being faster.
Think of it as a highway, with one lane only accessing certain sites for a certain price, but if you wanna take the route to Netflix or Facebook, that will come at an extra charge. Net Neutrality protects us from these companies being able to charge us to access certain sites or to create these bundle packages. Net Neutrality is an anthem for a free and open internet that is accessible to all, something that was envisioned a long time ago and was put in place during the FCC Obama-era time frame.
When asked about this monumental change, Ajit Pai downplayed it and tried to simplify it by saying: “Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the Internet.” And while this is true, he doesn’t state the downsides of it. The federal government should have some regulation when it comes to industries, especially one as massive as communications, specifically for the internet. And many companies are speaking out against this vote, which is planned for December 14th–Companies like Apple, Google, Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook just to name a few.
The companies that want this repeal to happen will benefit from it in the form of revenue, and with screwing over companies, these are big dogs like Verizon, AT&T, and Comcast. If Net Neutrality gets repealed this would set the United States back as a whole and the vision of open, free, and innovative internet would be out the window. Please reach out to your local government, state government, and the federal government to voice your opinion. There are many sites that will give you a script and auto-generate a letter– battleforthenet.com is a good one.
I highly recommend you reach out; it is a big reason why NJTechReviews is running an overlay banner, please do what you can to fight for Net Neutrality.
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