You may have heard me mention a few times that I’m a huge supporter of net neutrality. The term ‘net neutrality’ sort of suffers from the fact that it’s become a buzzword, so most people hear it every single day and accept that the term exists and means something, but it is repeated so often that what it actually  means is entirely irrelevant. That is unfortunate, to say the least.

Net neutrality is a stance that basically says the Internet should be free. Not free of cost, but rather free of restriction. The sort of content a residential Internet user accesses on the internet should be determined by the user, not determined by the network provider, such as your ISP. If you pay $50/month for broadband internet and want to access Google, you should be able to do so at your whim. If you want to access your favorite music blog, you should be able to do that. If you want to visit DeviantArt, your service provider should not be able to stop you. If you want to troll 4chan, there should be no ISP-placed barriers.

This is what Google has to say on the topic:

Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. The Internet has operated according to this neutrality principle since its earliest days… Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet. In our view, the broadband carriers should not be permitted to use their market power to discriminate against competing applications or content. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online.

A lot of people on the internet tend to underestimate it. How much information have you gleaned from the internet, just by random surfing? How much have you learned? How often do you bring up Wikipedia every week to look up something, either for some important purpose or simply to sate your curiosity? A lot, probably. What about all of the other things that people use the internet for these days? Employment, communication, all of that.

Right now, if your ISP decided there was information on Wikipedia that they didn’t want you to see, they have the option to prevent all of their users from accessing Wikipedia. You will be severed from a website that’s been called “the collected knowledge of all of humanity.” That’s probably overexaggeration there, but think about that. Naysayers will very quickly jump up to say, “But you can just go to the library.” They’re sort of missing the point, though. That’s exactly the problem. Your ability to go to the library and research something depends on a private company allowing you to do so. If that company says that you can’t go in there, that’s all there is to it. You can’t do it. You’ve been cut off from the information you want.

It sounds unlikely, right? But there’s absolutely nothing stopping it from happening short of it not being a wise business decision at this time. The moment that it does become one, or someone thinks that they can get away with it without repercussion, we lose a part of the internet, which means we lose freedom of information, and that’s one thing that we should never willingly give up.

For another example of what could happen: Say you’re looking for a job online, and AT&T is your ISP. You heard from a friend that the company he works for is hiring, and they’re accepting resumes online. Your friend’s company happens to be a rival company of AT&T. You try to submit your resume, but you can’t access the company’s website. AT&T blocked it at the ISP level, and you didn’t know. You can’t submit your resume, you don’t get the job, and you remain unemployed.

A theoretical situation, yes, but one that could become a reality if net neutrality isn’t a stance that succeeds.

Another model that various ISPs have put forth is a ‘tiered internet’ in which your internet is not one steady speed. There are differing priority levels depending on the website that you visit. Some websites will be flagged as high priority, and you’ll be given full high speed access to those websites. Others will be considered low priority, slashing your download/upload speeds.

A tiered internet is another thing we absolutely do not want, because the power to set the priority system would not be in the hands of the users, it would be in the hands of the private companies. Time for another sample scenario.

Let’s say that you use Comcast. In this sample scenario, Comcast has partnered up with Microsoft (who is actually a supporter of net neutrality, but bear with me here). If a tiered internet were allowed, Comcast could set MSN Video as a high priority website, giving you full blazing download speeds like you’ve always had, maybe even a bit faster. However, your beloved Youtube? It’s a competitor, so Comcast could diminish its presence by putting it on a lower tier, giving you significantly lower download speeds there. Yeah, a tiered internet lets you surf MSN Video faster than ever, but if you go to Youtube you’re barely breaking dial up speeds. Tiered internet models could also open up even worse abuse: Making you pay extra to access certain websites. $10/month for Wikipedia, $5/month for Youtube, $20/month for Google… that sort of thing.

Net neutrality is a stance that ensures private interests do not have a significant impact on a residential user’s ability to access the internet. No ISP should be able to say, “We don’t want our users looking at this.”

Net neutrality is a real issue, and it’s one you should care about and get involved in. It’s something discussed federally. It’s something that’s gone before congress. Those that speak out against net neutrality often say things like, “Net neutrality regulations are unnecessary because we have no plans to block content or limit broadband performance.” That’s absolutely not true. It’s a line used to try and convince politicians that net neutrality is not an issue worth their time. It’s moot, because there’s no problem that needs regulating. Completely false. There are already companies that have intentionally stalled P2P downloads. ISPs that have tried to stop their users from using torrents by artificially throttling the downloads. Have you had problems torrenting something recently? There’s a chance it had nothing to do with how many seeds there were, but rather it was your ISP trying to discourage you from using torrents, whether you were torrenting something legit or not.

Yes, that sounds a lot like a crazy conspiracy theory, but it’s really not. It’s something that happens right now. The internet, right now, is in the hands of private companies, and those private companies want to control how you get your information, where you get your information, and what information you actually get. Net neutrality wants to disallow them from doing that, and give everyone equal access to whatever they want. The company I used in my sample above, Comcast? They’ve actually tried to stop all of their users from using BitTorrent. Luckily for us, the FCC told them they couldn’t do it.

Note that this also applies to things like instant messaging. Do you use AIM? What if Comcast told you that you couldn’t anymore? Did you find my blog through WoW.com? If so, I’m assuming you play WoW! Do you raid? Do you use Ventrillo? If AT&T decided they didn’t want you using Ventrillo anymore, they could stop you. Hell, they could prevent you from logging onto WoW. Net neutrality wants to make sure that they can’t do that. If you want to log onto AIM or Ventrillo or your favorite MMO, your ISP should not be telling you that you can’t.

If you want to know more about the topic besides what I have to say here, such as who’s for it, who’s against it, what the pros and cons are, by all means: Look it up. That’s what we’re trying to preserve. The ability to find the information you want. The ability to see both sides of a story, rather than just the story the people controlling the information wants you to see.

I strongly recommend you read this article on seven reasons why you should fight for net neutrality. I also suggest keeping an eye on FreePress.net, maybe even signing up for their newsletter. In fact, FreePress.net even currently has information on how you can contact your congressman to tell them that net neutrality is important to you. The best thing you can do if you support net neutrality is to speak up. Let congress know that it’s important that they get behind it. The internet is one of the driving forces behind modern living right now, and if we let it be taken away from us, we’ll be doing ourselves a great disservice. Do not underestimate what the internet does, and can do. Letting private companies mold it to their whims could have an impact on humanity as a whole, and that’s definitely not an exaggeration.

Fight for it.