Back at the end of November, President Obama made his stance on the issue of net neutrality known publicly by supporting a proposal to classify broadband Internet as a Title II utility. Opponents were quick to respond with their own thoughts and opinions.
Throughout the whole discussion, however, one important point was missing: an explanation of what net neutrality is. This means that a lot of people hear about it, but don't know much about it and thus assume it won't impact them. That's simply not true.
I want to break the issue down for you and explain how it will, in one way or another, affect the Internet as we know it.
According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), one of the major organizations in favor of net neutrality, the issue is defined thusly:
the idea that Internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all data that travels over their networks equally
It's a short and simple definition that, unfortunately, doesn't really explain anything. Unless you already know how the Internet works, this just sounds like a bunch of jargon.
Let's break down what this definition means.
Taking all of that extra information into account, I want to give you a new, hopefully much easier to understand definition of net neutrality:
the idea that your Internet service should treat all information from the Internet equally
As with most primarily political arguments, there are two main camps that folks fall in: those in favor of net neutrality, and those that are not.
Those in favor of net neutrality believe that there should never be favor given to one Internet service (like a website) over another. For example, an Internet service provider should not be able to decide to make Netflix work faster than Hulu. Both services should be delivered to your house as fast as they can possible.
People who are pro-net neutrality are concerned that Internet service providers may form business deals or partnerships to deliver certain web content to you faster. The argument is that this will harm the ability of smaller companies to compete.
The other side of the argument sees net neutrality as a hindrance to businesses. If Internet service is classified as a common carrier, there will be new regulation surrounding how ISPs must work. Additional regulation will turn into monetary costs for these businesses.
Another concern is how the largest of the ISPs will be able to pay for necessary upgrades. Some things we do on the Internet demand more resources (bandwidth). It takes a lot more juice to stream an HD movie on Netflix than it does to look at pictures on Facebook. Businesses want to maintain the option to charge companies that are responsible for these increasing demands.
Ultimately, decisions regarding net neutrality will affect how Internet service providers charge and deliver services to you. It will affect the services you sign up for, how fast you can recieve them, and all the money that exchanges hands to make the Internet work. It can affect how fast upgrades to technology happens, and how easy it is to get a new internet-based start up off the ground.
Just because it's a fairly complicated tech issue doesn't mean you shouldn't know the basics. I hope this guide has at least helped in that regard!
I recommend you take the time to read more about the issue, talk about it with your friends, and ultimately let your elected officials know how you feel about the issue. It is extremely important that we all educate ourselves and talk with the folks who will ultimately be making the decision.
Ashley Jefcoat is the co-host of MPB's Everyday Tech, a weekly call-in show focused on making technology accessible to everyone. You can listen to it live every Wednesday at 10:00 am CST on MPB Think Radio. She also serves as the Digital Media Director for Mississippi Public Broadcasting, where she provides guidance in all things digital. Ashley resides in Jackson, MS, in a cute little house full of animals, video games, and books.