Net Neutrality: Heaven or Hell
What is Net Neutrality
According to the principle of “network neutrality”, network access service providers must treat all traffic on the Internet equally and not treat specific Internet services differently. (no additional fees can be charged, and fast channels cannot be created).
U.S. communications regulatory policies often change back and forth, which is particularly evident in “net neutrality,” This is the focus of research between the two parties in the United States.
In 2008, Obama expressed his apparent support for “net neutrality” immediately after being elected President of the United States. During Obama’s second term, in 2015, the Democrat-dominated FCC adopted the principle of “network neutrality” regulation, treating mobile operators and broadband service providers as public utilities like telephone services and thus subject to federal communications law regulation. While this regulatory principle was cheered by Internet companies such as Google and Netflix, it was also immediately protested and appealed by network operator giants such as AT&T and Comcast. According to the principle of network neutrality, the broadband internet service provider cannot charge large bandwidth users like Netflix, nor can they choose to speed up or slow down the network of a specific network service.
However, in early 2017, Trump announced that Ajit Pai was the FCC chairman as soon as he took office as the United States president, which caused a lot of controversy in the technology area because Ajit Pai always opposed “net neutrality”. When the FCC passed the “net neutrality” bill in 2015, Ajit Pai voted against it, although this did not change the final result. Through his series of operations, he made three of the five members of the FCC who opposed “net neutrality”, forming a majority advantage. Thanks to Trump’s “credit”, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) finally overturned the network neutrality policy enacted by Obama and relaxed the supervision of extensive network operating companies. The reason given by Ajit Pai is that the rules prevent telecom giants from making investments in their networks.
It is worth mentioning that he claimed that he favoured restoring the rules of net neutrality during the Biden campaign. Now Biden is adjusting the members of the FCC committee, including confirming the new FCC chairman. Once these actions are completed, as in 2017, the “net neutrality” rule will likely be restored within the FCC with a 3:2 vote.
How does net neutrality affect us?
With the development of large Internet companies such as Google and Netflix, operators’ bandwidth resources are increasing daily. As a result, many broadband operators have put pressure on them to pay additional bandwidth fees, or they will reduce their transmission speed. To ensure high-definition loading speed and video playback quality, and to ensure fair competition between small Internet companies and large Internet companies, the concept of network neutrality has been established for the above reasons. Imagine that we will be intolerant of websites with slow download rates if we have enjoyed high-speed Internet services for free. The political struggle also affects the development of citizens and cultural industries. If everyone is unable to surf the Internet fairly, it will become an obstacle to cultural transmission. For Internet companies and citizens, regulation is necessary.
Nonetheless, as the opponents represented by Ajit Pai believe, bandwidth priority is necessary for future innovation on the Internet. Network neutrality will reduce innovation and investment. The most important thing is that they believe that “network in neutrality” can balance servers’ inequality: The Internet is no longer a level playing field.
Net neutrality is an extremely complex issue involving politics, business, and people’s livelihood. No matter whether or how to do it next, there will be criticism.
