Net Neutrality Explained

On Thursday, the FCC voted to approve rules that will regulate the Internet as a public utility. The photo above shows the FCC voting on this issue. The picture at left shows the response from the crowd.

What this vote means is that internet service providers, those large, medium and small companies that actually hook you up to the internet cannot:

• Block access;
• Impair lawful content;
• Favor some traffic over other traffic based on payments...

...at least not right now.

The last point is the critical one. As the Internet becomes a necessity, the temptation and the ability to charge exorbitant rates grows. These things tend to start off small and build over time, to the point where only certain people and institutions can afford full and unfettered access. Look at finance, the source of much recent trouble. When was the last time one of your friends tried to open a brokerage firm, bank or money management firm of any scale? You've got to pay (campaign contributions, mainly) to play in each of these fields. (This, BTW, is why no one went to jail following the crisis.) Full access to the internet means it may be possible to open firms which will grow to dominate any one of these areas. Make no mistake: this is why big business wants to limit internet access.

At Thursday's hearing, the FCC noted they received over 4 million comments on the proposed rules, one of which was mine. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, widely regarded as one of the "inventors" of the Internet, commented in favor of the proposed rules. (I launched my first website on November 16, 1995, so I was around at the start...) So did Chad Dickerson, CEO of ETSY, an arts and crafts network, who pointed out that 18% of his artists use ETSY as their full time job. These people cannot afford to pay for priority internet access. 30,000 ETSY artist/craftspeople provided comments supporting open internet standards. FCC Chairman Wheeler was visibly moved by this..

FCC Commissioner Clyburn noted that full access to the Internet should "enable those with deep pockets as well as those with empty pockets." Of course, two right wing FCC Commissioners suggested that consumers should expect slower service, that the universal service fee will go up and that this will result in billions in new broadband taxes.

What consumers should actually expect are lawsuits from big business interests directed at blocking this rule from being implemented and Congressional meddling, with the same objective, from the right.