Lately it seems like good news is far and few between, so I’m pleased to be able to share this small glimmer of hope with you. The FCC has finally sworn in a fifth commissioner to break the deadlocked committee split 2-2 along party lines that has prevented the FCC from doing practically anything since Biden took office in 2021. Shortly after the fifth commissioner was confirmed, the FCC chair announced their plans to reinstate Net Neutrality, something we have written about here numerous times before.
What this means for you
The previously Republican-tilted FCC under the previous president’s leadership was perhaps best known for repealing the Net Neutrality rules adopted in 2015 which were established to frame internet and mobile bandwidth as a utility, giving the FCC regulatory oversight to ensure fairness and availability of what is inarguably an essential service for everyone. This decision was widely viewed as favoring corporations over people, resulting in numerous and sometimes grotesque exercises in being “off the leash” including an incident where Verizon throttled the Santa Clara Fire Department’s bandwidth during the worst fire emergency in California’s history, and then proceeded to upsell them on a better data plan instead of behaving like normal human beings. Normally disputes like this would have been settled quickly by the FCC, but without a fifth commissioner to break what was likely to be a partisan tie, the industry was left to self-regulate, which led to a lot of, “We investigated ourselves and found ourselves not guilty.” Before you get out the champagne, these plans are a long way from being implemented, but now with a Democrat as the tiebreaker, there may be opportunities for consumer interests to be valued ahead of corporations in a critical regulatory agency, if only for a little while.
Image courtesy of dream designs at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Several large and very popular websites, including Netflix and WordPress will be participating in an event known as “Internet Slowdown Day” on September 10th. The event, organized by several consumer advocacy groups, is being held to raise public awareness in the ongoing Net Neutrality debate and the imminent deadline (Sept 15) for public comments on the FCC’s proposed guidelines that govern how internet service providers operate. Chief among the concerns many have with the FCC’s proposal are the plans to allow ISP’s to establish premium fastlanes for content providers who can afford to pay extra. The easiest way to imagine how this might work is picturing someone paying to jump to the front of the line at a crowded amusement park.
What this mean for you:
In terms of September 10th, the various participants (this website included) aren’t actually slowing down delivery of content. Instead, they will be showing their support for Net Neutrality by prominently displaying various text and images that “simulate” what the internet would be like without Net Neutrality. Though it takes various forms depending on the platform and device on which it appears, everyone is intimately familiar with the “Loading, please wait…” animation. Regardless of how colorful, fancy or soothing it may try to appear, waiting for something to load is always aggravating and inconvenient. If you are still unsure what the fuss is about have a look at this video. It’s not the most objective of presentations, but it does a good job of explaining why Net Neutrality is worth preserving.
A secret war is being fought in the internet industry right now, but unless you are a die-hard student of all things tech, you might not even know it’s taking place. The more conspiratorial-inclined among us accuse the mainstream media of avoiding coverage of this debate because of their close ties to the opponents of net neutrality, but it’s also a very complex, “unsexy” topic that is hard to explain in easily digestible soundbites.
The principles of “network neutrality” have been the subject of hot debate for over a decade now, but as of yet, there has only been one highly publicized incident of a company actively “violating” the basic tenet of net neutrality, which is that all data on the internet should be treated equally, both in terms of accessibility (can I see it?) and how quickly it loads. For Americans, censorship is a hot-button topic, so the accessibility issue isn’t normally included in the ongoing debate. What’s at stake is whether internet service providers like Time Warner, Comcast and AT&T can charge content providers (NetFlix, Google, Spotify) more because they use so much data, and if those companies refuse to pay the premium, would their bandwidth be throttled, lowering the quality and/or value of the service itself.
Another aspect of this debate is whether the US Government (or any government, for that matter) should regulate the internet like a utility. Both sides of the net neutrality fight are of mixed opinion on this. Some argue this would encourage (enforce) competition in the ISP market, and would allow oversight into ensuring net neutrality was observed, but as many others have pointed out, this didn’t work so well for the telecomm industry the first time we tried this. The other thorny facet of this issue is the plain fact that the internet is not owned nor controlled by any one country, though it could be argued that the US holds a “majority stake” in its creation and continued wellbeing.
What this means for you:
Today, the FCC has presented a plan that many feel completely undermines network neutrality by providing a “regulated” means for ISPs to create “fast lanes” of service into which content providers may opt, and if they do not, presumably their content would be delivered via the “normal lanes”. If no one opted into the fast lanes, this would be a moot point, but as you all know, in business, those who get to the finish line first win, and everyone else, regardless of whether they finish at all, lose. Even the most altruistic of companies (Google maybe?) are willing to get their claws out when it comes to competing, and being slow on the internet is the difference between being Facebook or being MySpace.
In my opinion, network neutrality is a concept worth understanding at minimum, and if you take the long view on improving our civilization, an important principle that should be upheld. Competition is what made America great once, and it is what created the amazing technology we have now, including the internet. Creating tiers of accessibility and quality within a service that most would view as a fundamental need (if not right) might end up creating a version of the internet (at least in America – imagine the irony) that is the antithesis of internet that is spreading information, freedom and equality around the world.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net