It’s Thanksgiving weekend, and politics may be banned from the dinner table, but there’s one topic that needs to be discussed — the future of the internet.
You may have increasingly heard the term Net Neutrality over the past few months. Maybe you rolled your eyes and clicked away, or maybe you thought it doesn’t affect your everyday life. Think again. If the Federal Communications Commission passes newly announced legislation this December, the open internet we’ve come to know will disappear.
Here’s what Net Neutrality is, and what the FCC’s proposal means for it.
What is Net Neutrality?
Net Neutrality means treating everything on the internet equally; it’s a guiding principle that preserves an open internet. You get the same connection speeds, as well as the same access to sites like YouTube and Netflix, with no preferential treatment shown to a specific service by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). That means Verizon or AT&T can’t block or slow access to a site because they don’t like its content, or because it competes with their services.
The FCC adopted strong guidelines in 2015 when it reclassified broadband internet access service as a utility under Title II of the Communications Act, classifying ISPs as “common carriers.” While the FCC did not enforce “utility-style regulations” like pricing regulations or network sharing requirements, it does place ISPs under close governmental oversight to prevent unfair internet practices.
