John Oliver a few nights ago brought this matter to attention, once again. A couple of years ago, there was the issue that came up about Net Neutrality, right about the same time that the SOPA and PIPA bills were floating around, and the internet was panicked. Since that time, the internet has been regulated under Title II rules, which is good. It means that companies (like Comcast or Verizon or what have you) that provide you internet aren't allowed to mess with what sites you can access.
Take Comcast for example. If they're your internet provider, and these net neutrality laws are repealed, they could feasibly slow down your internet access to certain sites. Comcast owns a large share of Hulu-- great! You never have issues loading any shows. However, Netflix is their competition. Without regulations, there's nothing stopping Comcast from slowing down or limiting your access to Netflix, because it isn't in their best interest for you to view them. Maybe this delay is significant enough that you stop bothering with the competition altogether. Maybe that lack of diversified access limits what sort of programming you get. Comcast also owns NBC. What's to stop them from only supplying their programs? It might not seem like a huge deal, but suddenly you're limited to one news source with no fact checking capabilities.
This can extend well beyond issues as simple as this. Net Neutrality allows for a free and open internet, with access to all sites equally, regardless of any business or political motivations. It is a slippery slope from tampering with your internet speeds, to not allowing access to certain sites altogether, to severely limiting our freedom of speech and right to information.
If you have any sort of opinion on this issue, which most internet users should, PLEASE take the time to submit a comment on the FCC website. They made it needlessly complicated this go around, so John Oliver kindly created a link that leads directly to the spot with all of the information plugged in. Just click the link and then click "Express" on the right hand side, and file your comments!
gofccyourself.com (Please don't accidentally type in gofckyourself... very different results. Please use link
)
Here's a recap of the issue by John Oliver (the Superman of taking on Net Neutrality Issues). It's 20 minutes, but well worth the watch to the end. He addresses the issue way better than I could. Fair warning though, Oliver does use some f-bombs:
Net Neutrality 2017
