Net Neutrality

Logos from the seven main telecommunication providers

    When determining which policy I would research and teach the class about, I was slightly hesitant to choose net neutrality because I remember how confusing I thought it was back when there was a lot of debate about it. In the end, I decided to take it on because I really wanted to have a better understanding on this topic, and now, I do. 

What is Net Neutrality?

    Net neutrality is the policy that prohibits telecommunication companies from speeding up, slowing down, or blocking sites or content. 

    The term was first coined in 2003 when Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia University, published a paper about online discrimination. When it was published, some telecommunication services were impacting different services. For example, Comcast and several other providers had blocked their customers from using virtual private networks, more widely known as VPN's.

    The first major attempt the U.S. government made to prevent telecommunication services from discriminating against websites was in 2005. Under the Bush administration, the Federal Communication Commission, or FCC created a policy that forced these companies to allow customers to connect any device of their choosing to their internet, barred them from blocking legal content, and stated that Comcast would eventually have to stop slowing down the usage of BitTorrent. BitTorrent is a program that while it had legitimate uses, it was also commonly used for piracy. This policy was overturned by a federal court following a lawsuit from Comcast. The court stated that the FCC did not have any sort of case that it had the authority to enforce their policy.

    In 2010, under the Obama administration, the FCC tried to implement net neutrality once again, with a more specific policy. This time, it was Verizon who sued and won, with the court stating that the FCC was overstepping its authority by trying to impose these regulations on companies that were not classified as Title II common carriers under the Communication Act.

    The Communication Act was passed in 1934. It created the Federal Communication Commission, who is responsible for regulating radio, television, wire, and satellite communications. This extended the 1927 Radio Act by adding the regulation of common carriers. Common carriers are services that are seen as vital to an economy and/or the society as a whole, so laws can be passed in order to ensure people have equal access to it. 

    In 2015, after much public demand for net neutrality, the FCC changed internet providers classification to Title II common carrier status. Once this happened, the FCC reinstated their previous policy, and although they were sued once again, this time the court sided with the commission. 

    In 2017, all of the hard work was dismantled when the FCC, now under the Trump Administration, got rid of the common carrier status for the providers, as well as any policies that prevented said providers from blocking or slowing down content. The only rule they put in place was that these companies had to disclose any and all information about their "network-management practices." 

    Despite this set back for net neutrality advocates, just last month, progress was made when a federal court in California announced that beginning Tuesday, March 2nd, the state would be enforcing their policy which bars telecommunication services from adjusting the speed or accessibility of content online. Many think that CA's laws will become a staple for other states to follow in creating anti-internet discrimination laws. 

How does it work? 

    With net neutrality, telecommunication companies are not allowed to speed up or slow down any websites or content, and they are also not allowed to charge companies different amounts of money in order to have their site work at a normal pace. For example, YouTube, a media mega giant, and a small business owner's website would have to pay the same amount of money to the telecommunication companies for their content to be accessible to users.

    On the other hand, without net neutrality, telecommunication companies can create a tiered payment program where websites that take up a higher bandwidth have to pay more in order to have their content accesible at the normal speed. For instance, YouTube takes up much more bandwidth than a small business owner's website, so it costs the telecommunication companies more money to keep YouTube's speed equivalent to the other website's speed. In order to combat that, service providers would charge these bigger sites like YouTube, Twitter, etc more money to account for the extra bandwidth used. This extra charge could then potentially fall on the shoulders of the customers as these companies could charge all customers for the use of their sites. 

Who does this really affect?

    At the end of the day, whichever side wins the net neutrality argument, similar people are affected. 

  

Households with Broadband service
subscriptions via U.S. Census Bureau

 With net neutrality, although everyone has equal and free access to content online, the telecommunication services are not making as much of a profit. Without that profit, they are unable to put more money towards other departments and areas-- for instance, extending service to more rural and impoverished areas. This negatively impacts those living in these areas, who commonly have a lower income. 

    Without net neutrality, users may have to begin to pay a premium to use different sites, and that will be the hardest on low income households. Yes, everyone is having to pay, but for those of a higher socio-economic status, that extra expense may not put much of a dent in the pocketbook, whereas for those who live paycheck to paycheck, they may have to sacrifice another necessity in order to use websites to which they need access. 

    In conclusion, the debate over net neutrality is ongoing. Although it may be hard to uphold national legislation enforcing it, many states may begin to model after California's latest policy in order to create their rules and regulations for telecommunication companies.