14 DAY TRIAL // Now that the FCC has confirmed that it will protect the open Internet, the general feeling among those that have advocated for Net Neutrality is one of relief and victory. “We won,” is what most are saying and they are all right.
A battle that started about a year ago with a few controversial statements coming from Tom Wheeler, the Federal Communications Commission Chairman, has come to an end with one historic vote that had already been postponed several times.
“The Internet is too important to allow broadband providers to make the rules,” Wheeler said. “So today, after a decade of debate in an open, robust year-long process, we finally have legally sustainable rules to ensure that the Internet stays fast, fair and open.”
And that’s the gist of the entire Net neutrality debate – keeping the Internet “fast, fair and open” and away from the complete control of the service providers is of utmost importance since history has taught us that they cannot be trusted to do this on their own. Despite promises to protect the open Internet, all ISPs have done has been in their own financial interest.
Businesswise, this isn’t surprising, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is a bigger issue than the profits of one company or another.
The importance of Net Neutrality
Net Neutrality, which is also called the Open Internet, is a principle that all Internet traffic is equal and cannot be discriminated against. This means that people’s Internet connections cannot be throttled with because they spend more time than others surfing the web or playing, it cannot be throttled with because they use more bandwidth or due to the content they download or visit. It also means that Internet companies cannot decide that one content provider should get more bandwidth than another, which is what happened last year with Netflix.
ISP desired to be allowed to create so-called fast lanes to get more money from companies seeking to make sure their users got the best service quality. Initially, Tom Wheeler’s proposed deal included such a chapter, which displeased many people. Aside from the tech companies protesting against the idea, some 4 million comments were sent to the FCC and Barack Obama himself intervened and asked the Commission to protect the open Internet and not the financial interests of ISPs.
After much back and forth, Wheeler’s proposal, the one that they voted on, reclassifies ISPs, including wireless data providers as public utilities. Thus, the FCC gains as much control over what they do as they do over phone companies.
A battle won
“This is our free speech struggle in the digital age. Institutions of power should know by now: Internet users will not stand idly by while anyone tries to take their freedom away. And when Internet users come together to fight for something they believe in, nothing can stop them,” said Tiffiniy Cheng, Fight for the Future co-founder, an advocacy group that has organized dozens of protests over the past year and that has worked with other similar groups and tech companies to coordinate their efforts.
At the same time, since Reddit has been one of the most vocal companies in the tech industry, US president Barack Obama sent a note to the community thanking everyone for their effort.
“Earlier today, the FCC voted to protect a free and open internet — the kind of internet that allows entrepreneurs to thrive and debates over duck-sized horses and horse-sized ducks to persist. This would not have happened without the activism and engagement of millions of Americans like you. And that was a direct result of communities like reddit. So to all the redditors who participated in this movement, I have a simple message: Thank you,” reads Obama’s (rather silly) message.