The principle of net neutrality has made the internet what it is — a free and open platform with no fast lanes, blocking or throttling; where people can innovate, create, and communicate without any gatekeepers telling us what sites we can visit, who we can talk to, or what we can watch.
New FCC Chairman Ajit Pai wants to “wipe away [the] net neutrality rules.”1 To “wipe away” net neutrality would be to destroy the internet as we know it — and usher in a new era where internet service providers get to decide what content people engage with and what sites we can visit. Gutting net neutrality would enable cable companies and the biggest sites on the net to pick winners and losers — reducing choice, costing consumers more money, and most concerning, enable big companies to censor people and ideas they don’t like.
In order to protect innovation, consumer choice, and free speech online, the FCC must re-affirm its net neutrality rule classifying the internet as a public utility.
Sources:
1. New York Times, "An Anti-Consumer Agenda at the F.C.C.," February 10, 2017.