We value our net neutrality, fighting for it in 2015 and winning against Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, to name a few. However, the FCC (or ISPs) who did not back down, fought to end net neutrality starting in 2018 and won against the majority. People have become discouraged, lost interest, and while we can still fight for net neutrality in Texas, it seems like the majority doesn't care enough to fight for it. What is net neutrality? Imagine that the Internet is a set of highways that allow you to get from one place to another. Net neutrality is the belief that these “highways” should not be controlled, owned, or manipulated by any private organization without the express approval of the government. Whatever happens to net neutrality, we can be sure that it will affect everyone connected to the Internet and even those who are not connected. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayThe United States did not always have net neutrality, it was reactionary regulation due to exploitative tactics used by a small percentage of ISPs. An example of this would be how Comcast restricted Netflix resulting in its videos streaming slowly, with frequent interruptions, until Netflix paid Comcast a substantial sum (Medium). Once net neutrality was achieved in 2015 through majority voting, the company itself (Comcast) had to agree not to favor NBC content over other video providers, such as Youtube, when it acquired NBC Universal more than ten years ago ago (Medium IPSX). Net neutrality is intended to discourage ISPs from treating competition for online sites unequally (Medium IPSX). Without net neutrality, there's nothing to stop this kind of thing from actually happening online. Without it, ISPs might decide to charge customers an additional fee per month to access websites like Netflix and Spotify, and that's before paying for the subscription. “Without net neutrality, if you want to organize people to restore it, it would be legal for ISPs to restrict access to websites or apps that promote net neutrality” according to Emma Lindsay (Medium). It would allow ISPs to do so-called "deep packet inspection" and prevent you from sending messages that contain the phrase "net neutrality" (Medium IPSX). In a sense excluding your freedom of speech and freedom of the press. People also point out the equal time rule, a rule that requires equal representation in "broadcasts", as everyone supports free speech and no censorship. Economically, the wave of digital entrepreneurship that has enabled technology to become a “trillion-dollar field” could slow to a crawl without net neutrality. The repeal could prevent or increase the cap allowed for startups (new companies) to compete against tech giants like Netflix or Amazon that already have the funding needed to pay for a network like this. If you can't pay the ransom, you can't compete with those who can. So why wouldn't anyone, other than ISPs, want net neutrality? According to the non-artificial comments received by the FCC, almost no one doesn't want it (MediaShift). However, that doesn't mean there aren't valid points against it. Opponents of net neutrality generally want Internet services to be free from.
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