Net Neutrality is a mess of divisive, confusing, and controversial opinion. And the clutter has only worsened over the last few months. After the Federal Communication Commission’s repeal of the Obama-era rules in December of 2017, chat forums, comment sections, and news articles about the repeal sprang up in every corner of the exact place that Net Neutrality was attempting to regulate – the Internet. Now, the beginning of the repeal process will start on April 23rd.
Opponents of Net Neutrality rules say the regulations hinder the ability to provide so-called “fast lanes” on the internet. Those fast lanes would give preference to certain industries and professions that require the fastest speeds possible to deliver the best possible service. Examples often given include emergency workers such as police, firefighters, and medical personnel.
Advocates for Net Neutrality rules argue that the fast lanes would give ISPs – Internet Service Providers – the ability to deny service to those who would or could oppose their business interests or ideas.
But, it all goes much deeper than that. For help breaking down the topic of Net Neutrality, we go to Stan Horaczek, Technology Editor at Popular Science.
Credits:
Everything Explained is produced by WAMC Northeast Public Radio with assistance from Kristin Gilbert, Ashleigh Kinsey, Ian Pickus, and Jim Levulis. Also we’d like to give a special thanks to Stan Horaczek. I’m your host Patrick Garrett. As always we want to remind you to subscribe and leave a review because like everyone else in the “pod-realm” will tell you, it helps us to make more podcasts like this one.
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Additional Links:
What Is Net Neutrality? | American Civil Liberties Union
Am I The Only Techie Against Net Neutrality? – Forbes
Ajit Pai says net neutrality was the top threat to broadband deployment
What you need to know about the FCC’s 2015 net neutrality regulation