When you go online you are free to visit any website you want and control your entire internet experience. Your cable/phone company is not choosing the websites to connect you to or the content you see. This free internet is net neutrality. It is the basic principle that prohibits internet services providers (ISPs) from speeding up, slowing down, or blocking content that you want to see.
Our open internet is in danger – Trump’s FCC chairman, Ajit Pai (a former Verizon lawyer), wants to eliminate net neutrality and allow ISPs to control our internet experience.
What is net neutrality?
Net neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites. Meaning consumers should be able to load and access every website, app, image, video, gif, etc. wherever it is hosted without their ISP charging more for certain sites such as streaming websites or those that promote specific agendas.
Right now when you use the internet you expect net neutrality – you can connect to any website you want and you’re in complete control of your internet experience. It enables and protects free speech online.
What would happen if we lost net neutrality?
Without net neutrality the internet would never be the same. The internet would no longer be an open network connecting the world that has paved the way for numerous innovations.
Companies like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon would be able to decide who is heard and who is not, what we see and what we don’t see. Completely eliminating specific people’s voices and deciding what messages we hear. They’d be able to block websites or content they don’t like or those that compete with their offerings.
Why is net neutrality important for businesses?
Net neutrality is crucial for small business owners, startups and entrepreneurs, who rely on the open internet to launch their businesses, create markets, advertise their products and services, and reach customers. We need the open internet to foster job growth, competition and innovation.
Net Neutrality gives small businesses the ability to use the internet as a fair and level playing field. It’s because of Net Neutrality that small businesses and entrepreneurs have been able to thrive online.
No company should be allowed to interfere with this open marketplace. ISPs are the internet’s gatekeepers, and without Net Neutrality, they would seize every possible opportunity to profit from that gatekeeper position.
Without Net Neutrality, the next Google or Facebook would never get off the ground. [1]
What can you do to prevent this?
Millions have already taken a stand to defend our rights to connect and communicate. Take action now and join the fight.
[1] Save the Internet,Net neutrality what you need to know now,Retrieved 17 July 2017
