Net Neutrality: The Solution to a Nonexistent Problem

Like most government regulations, it’s unnecessary and counterproductive.

What is net neutrality?

Internet service providers (ISP’s) like Comcast, Verizon and others are the companies who bring the physical infrastructure of the Internet to the consumer – you. Technically, these providers are capable of discriminating among the types of communications on their networks, say, by allowing one website or type of service to travel faster on their networks than another.

This invokes a scary possibility. What if, in an effort to squash out Amazon’s instant streaming video, Netflix paid Comcast a large sum of money to discriminate in favor of Netflix’s video and give it more bandwidth on Comcast’s network than Amazon or other sites. The result would be crystal clear video on Netflix but endless buffering on Amazon for Comcast customers. In response, Amazon could pay off Verizon for preferential treatment on its network, giving Amazon users with Verizon internet a perfect experience and screwing over Netflix subscribers.

Some ISP’s that are also content providers could give their own data favorable treatment.

“Network neutrality” is a fancy way of stating the principle that ISP’s should treat all legal data traveling over their networks equally. Many consider it to be the “First Amendment of the Internet.” Mark Stanley of the Internet activist group, Demand Progress, told the Guardian that “Net neutrality is basically the principle that keeps the Internet open. Without it, big cable companies will be able to slow down certain websites and pick winners and losers on the Internet.”