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The internet is predictably in an uproar over reports the FCC is going to repeal net neutrality rules put into place during the Obama administration. Most conservatives are cheering while many liberals are screaming to the open sky. The sad reality is that a good majority of people don’t quite understand what the current variation of net neutrality really is.
Originally, the concept of net neutrality was acceptable and even necessary. It was about consumer choice and internet freedoms to use the websites we wanted to use at our discretion. In other words, neither Comcast nor a government agency could say we were allowed to go to YouTube but we couldn’t go to Netflix. This made sense.
The current version of net neutrality is anathema. It took the original concept and turned it on its head to prohibit actions such as throttling or paid internet “fast lanes” that internet service providers could use to properly manage the flow of the web. On the surface, this might seem like a good idea, but there are major flaws.
First, the fear that proponents of net neutrality invoke is based upon the idea that if Comcast is getting bogged down by a service like Netflix, they’ll cut it off or slow it down. This is ludicrous. For a site to be able to affect the speed of an ISP, that site would have to be extremely popular. If it’s that popular, companies like Comcast would be ill-advised to block or slow them down because their customers would get upset. The free market is perfectly equipped to handle the risks that net neutrality allegedly alleviates. Unfortunately, too many people and politicians feel that the free market needs to be backed up by the government, which leads us to the second major flaw.
When government takes too much control over an industry through regulations, it discourages investments and technological advancements. As regulations rise within an industry, innovations fall. By trying to improve the internet, government actually hampers it.
The biggest flaw in net neutrality is that it gives way too much insight into our activities to the government. Because of the nature of the current rules, it’s necessary for the government to keep tabs on, well, everything that happens online. It doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to realize this is, in part, a facade to legalize direct monitoring in the name of neutrality. How can they make sure the ISPs are doing what they’re told unless they have access to everything that’s going on, including which websites are getting traffic, where that traffic is coming from, and who is visiting these sites?
They need every bit of insight they can glean from ISPs in order to “protect” us from them. As a general rule, when the government is protecting us from something in the free market, it’s really about control and accumulation of information for other purposes.
The internet is not going to break once government removes the huge paws of unelected bureaucrats from its core. In fact, we should expect the increase in innovations as a result of diminishing regulations to improve the internet for everyone. When problems arise, the free market is very capable of quelling bad actions by ISPs.
Further Reading
FCC plans total repeal of net neutrality rules
President Donald Trump-appointed Pai’s plan would jettison rules that prohibit internet service providers from blocking or slowing web traffic or creating so-called paid internet fast lanes, the people familiar with the changes said.
Pai also will follow through on his plans to scrap the legal foundation that the FCC’s old Democratic majority adopted in 2015 to tighten federal oversight of internet service providers, a move he contends has deterred the industry from investing in broadband networks. Internet providers have feared that legal foundation, if left in place, could set the stage for possible government price regulation of internet service.
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