Who controls what you do on the web?

No one is really “the boss” on the internet, though your ISP (Internet Service Provider) has a say in your content, or at least the speed in which you see it.  As of now ISPs have “principles” that they are supposed to adhere to but still have the ability to selectively block content and regulate the speed of your service.  So would government regulation of the internet, in order to stop this “meddling,” be good or bad for the average user?

What does internet neutrality really mean for you?

In a recent article, USA Today reported that the FCC is proposing the following “guidelines” for net neutrality:

• No blocking. ISPs would not be allowed to block any online content, including features, apps and other Web-based innovations that develop in the future (spam, viruses and the like excluded).

• No favoritism. ISPs would not be allowed to give preferential treatment to their own content. And no price-gouging of customers who don’t want to buy their stuff.

• No discrimination. That means an ISP can’t slow down, speed up or otherwise discriminate among online traffic. They’d have to treat a start-up just as they treat Google and themselves.

• Wireless, too. Net neutrality would apply to all broadband platforms, including wireless.

• Full disclosure. To keep online traffic flowing smoothly, an ISP might be allowed to slow down some transmissions – say, e-mail – but it would have to say so publicly.

Could net neutrality become a reality anytime soon?

President Obama made a promise on the campaign trail in 2007 that if elected president he would back net neutrality.  Whether or not he was just trying to appeal to the MTV generation or not is yet to be seen however the net neutrality debate is starting to gain some momentum.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is the big cheese of Obama’s technology policy and believes that net neutrality is “critical to the long-term success of the Internet” arguing that the plan would protect millions of consumers.  He contends that no government action would be dangerous for consumers.

“Doing nothing would impose its own form of unacceptable cost,” he said. “It would deprive innovators and investors of confidence that the free and open Internet we depend on today will still be here tomorrow.”

If it’s not broken, why fix it?

The internet is supposed to be an open forum for creativity and information sharing.  It has been around for over 40 years, so why the sudden influx of neutrality proponents?

Not everyone is for net neutrality though.  Some feel that government would be overstepping its bounds by regulating the internet and site First Amendment infringement in such actions.

In her report entitled “Net Neutrality:  A Further Take on the Debate,” Barbara Esbin, Senior Fellow of The Progress & Freedom Foundation, a think tank devoted to the study of the digital revolution, opposes net neutrality.

Esbin argues that a strong reasoning as to why net neutrality has abruptly taken center stage has not been provided and questions the logic of why after 40 years of indifference toward ISPs regulating data, the government has decided to step in.  She is also critical of the validity of the government’s abrupt concern about the data that ISPs control.

“We now suddenly cannot trust broadband network operators to discriminate in the handling of Internet traffic in socially beneficial ways, so we must outlaw their ability to do so at all.”

Esbin also argues that with the high traffic numbers on the web, it is highly unlikely that ISPs are monitoring and censoring information on an individual basis thus government regulation of service would be frivolous.

The government on the other hand wants to ensure that if any regulation of information were to occur, it be done out in the open.

The debate will surely rage on in the coming months.  Everyone should have a say.  What do you think about net neutrality?  Post your comments below.

Click here to read the full report on Esbin’s arguments.

Click here to read the full USA Today article.

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