Last week, a Federal Court of Appeals struck down the Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Open Internet Order for Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality is the concept that Internet service providers (ISPs) should not discriminate against or in favor of specific sites, web pages, and content. This enables all data to have an equal chance to be used as the user determines.
Some people think that if Net Neutrality ends, then various ISPs will start to require content sites to pay extra to receive full speed access for the downloads. It is possible that one ISP may favor Barnes & Noble over Amazon and Amazon might take three times as long to load as Barnes & Noble. This has a lot of people worried including some educators/teachers who use the internet in their teaching. Many point to the original concept of the internet being a free and open exchange.
There are people on the other side the issue that have a different perspective. They state that FCC should not have the right to control the internet. They point to government abuses of power especially the FCC’s history.
On Geeky KOOL, we strive to keep our discussions free of politics. But since we are a website, the issue of Net Neutrality could have a huge affect on our website, traffic, videos, and posts. We have come out strongly in favor of the idea of Net Neutrality so websites can equally compete for hits and advertising. That being said, we do understand why some oppose the FCC’s self imposed jurisdiction of the Internet and the problems of government control.
Netflix has lent their influential voice to the debate. They have come out very strongly in favor of Net Neutrality and opposed to this ruling. The majority of their business is on the internet with downloading entertainment. If ISPs decide to charge Netflix extra for the opportunity have their movies downloaded, Netflix may have to pay and charge their clients more. The other option would be for them not to pay and for either the downloads to be extremely slowed down or blocked completely. Because of this, Netflix is encouraging their 34 million American customers to support Net Neutrality and leave any ISP that wants to charge extra fees.
I bet Netflix will be the first of many big named internet companies to support the ideals of Net Neutrality. It is in their best interest to actively support Net Neutrality. Just like it is in the best interests of the ISPs to support this ruling against Net Neutrality. It is definitely an interesting debate no matter your position.
Stay Geeky My Friends!
