By Kristen Santer
On Feb. 26, the Federal Communcations Commission (FCC) issued its most historic piece of legislature since the Telecommunications Act of 1996: the Open Information Act. the act, which regulates the Internet as a utility, essentially prevents ISPs from blocking or slowing Web traffic.
ISPs have many objections to the net neutrality ruling, and have been forcefully campaigning against it for the past 10 years. Steve Davis, executive vice president for public and government relations of CenturyLink, has stated that net neutrality makes it harder “for broadband providers to deploy fiber in their networks and offer the higher speeds and better performance levels customers demand.”
Other arguments state that the excessive amount of data Netflix and YouTube use, as well as illegal data consumed by sites like BitTorrent and PirateBay, clogs and disrupts Internet traffic. ISPs argue that, by charging these sites more, they could build more advanced fiber networks that would open the Internet up to new possibilities and would be advantageous for all.
Net neutrality advocates staunchly believe that the ruling will protect innovations and start-ups, since big companies like Netflix and Google could have the potential to get faster speeds and more bandwidth without net neutrality. In addition, supporters of net neutrality point out the priorities that ISPs could give to their own corporations, like Comcast with NBC, and their abilities to slow down rival sites. Verizon has stated that giving “unblocked access to lawful Web sites…will not change,” and ISPs firmly proclaim that they would never support biases like that.
However, most of these arguments against net neutrality boil down to whether or not people trust the promises repeatedly emphasized by the ISPs. Internet service providers have promised that they will not interfere with the consumers’ Internet habits, and will not provide benefits to preferred sites. While ISPs are attempting to pander to and cajole consumers, they are preparing for their assault against the ruling.
Recently, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) introduced a bill titled “The Internet Freedom Act,” which would essentially retract and reverse the recent net neutrality ruling. Blackburn stated that the legislation “will put the brakes on this FCC overreach and protect our innovators from these job-killing regulations.”
The bill has 31 Republican co-sponsors, all but two of whom have received money from ISPs via PACs in the past few months. According to The Daily Beast, the amount donated is equivalent to $800,000. Although this piece of legislation will not likely pass, this is just the start of the Internal service providers’ backlash against the FCC ruling.
The next couple of years will be fraught with lawsuits and congressional battles after this controversial ruling. Trade groups and telecommunications companies will continue to challenge the decision, but we should not see large amounts of change during that time.
Although I am in favor of net neutrality, I wonder if this aggressive ruling will have the potential to negatively affect consumers’ or business’ Internet access and reliability. I believe that we have not yet seen the big picture. Regardless of my doubts, I do not trust ISPs enough to completely disregard net neutrality’s importance and necessity. While we can rejoice in the benefits that the net neutrality ruling offers, we should still be cautious about the future changes.
Kristen Santer, FCRH ’17, is a communications and media studies major from Stamford, Connecticut.
