Category: Network Security

My name is Grace Niego and I am currently a senior at Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School in Chicago, Illinois. The problem of net neutrality has come to my attention in a recent class. Net neutrality, otherwise called the Open Internet, is the rule that Internet service providers should empower access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without preferring or blocking specific items or sites. Net neutrality is important to me because I believe that everyone should be given equal opportunities, including equal access to the Internet. Net neutrality is a key part of the expression, protecting innovation, and creating an equal playing field.

Net neutrality plays a fundamental part in free speech and expression. Internet service providers should not be able to block content or slow down web pages simply because they don’t approve of it. Net neutrality allows online speech to be accessible to everyone.

Despite the fact that there are organizations that have made billions of dollars because of their access to the web, they were able to get started on the same footing. When the internet stays impartial, innovation is secure. Large companies still have the same access as little and moderate size businesses or specialists and this permits everybody to acquire a happy living or offer data in a way that best suits them.

Net neutrality also offers a level playing field where companies of all sizes can drive innovation and pursue unrestricted customer consideration. Abolishing net neutrality can establish a ‘ two-tiered ‘ Internet. This would cause wealthy established corporations to have the ability to pay for their favored content to be conveyed at quick speeds while new and small emerging companies are left with moderate loading times which will dissuade consumers, frustrate their net income and stifle development inside the international market.

An opposing view of unhindered internet would be the possibility that it removes authority from the Federal Trade Commission, which has traditionally protected security rights. The FTC is another agency framed in the early 20th century that mainly manages to punish corrupt organizations. However, the FTC is essentially a responsive organization and net neutrality does shift authority, but with good reason and no loss to consumers.

I hope you take into account all the pros I have stated about net neutrality. Having access to the Internet truly impacted my life as a student and has given me so many opportunities in life. It has allowed me to expand my knowledge I know for a fact that net neutrality would change the lives of so many citizens.

Introduction

The information on the internet is available for everyone to access and it’s been an issue for many years on net neutrality. If there is no net neutrality then the Internet Service Provider (ISP) has complete control over the content that can be accessible by the Internet users. Net neutrality prevents ISPs from demanding premium payment for the websites to have faster streaming. The internet websites were segregated based on paid prioritization and the users will be regulated based on the internet users. Net neutrality is mandating that ISPs treat Internet communications without any discrimination based on the website content, website platform, applications, devices, users, destination address, and communication methods. Net neutrality regulates ISPs not to charge money for only content, prioritize the traffic meters, block the traffic, and charge the consumers. Net neutrality is focused on bringing Internet communication available for users across the globe (Hazlett, 2011).

Net Neutrality Laws and Regulations

Net Neutrality is a global challenge and many people were trying to bring net neutrality. The Internet was created to provide equal opportunity to access content across the globe. Till today communication is not equally distributed and there were many countries in the world without proper access to the internet. The ISP was the telecommunication organization who have invested millions of dollars to build the infrastructure to support communication. But, these service providers were using internet usage as the channel to bring the return on investments. There were regulations and standards that were designed to support telecommunication infrastructure usage. These regulations were challenging net neutrality and there is a threat for many internet websites and applications to compete in the fair marketplace. The regulations were risks for the organizations to provide the right access to the information (Pickard & Berman, 2019).

The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the federal government. The FCC is providing regulations for the television, radio, and telephone industries in the United States (US). These regulations were related to interstate communications and international communications that are from the US. The FCC’s Open Internet Order provided regulations that allow ISPs to take control of net neutrality. The FCC could not able to impose net neutrality on the telecom providers. The argument of open internet was to provide the internet at the same charges and there should not be differentiation of internet access based on the content or the service providers. Having communication discrimination from the ISPs, it was challenging for the business to get a fair competitive advantage. The telecommunication companies were providing high-speed internet for the premium changers and the other organizations were getting neglected. There were many organizations that will not get an equal opportunity to take advantage of the Internet (Marsden, 2017).

There were many ISPs who were opposing net neutrality by establishing a two-tiered system that allows the ISPs to get faster communication and faster service with paid services. This actually discriminates the users over the internet and does not provide equal opportunity for communication. The user will be restricted to the content and the companies with paid services provide faster streaming. This approach rapidly increases the cost of internet services and this results in an escalated cost for using the applications. The application owner’s content owners need to shift these premium charges to the users and this limits the purpose of the internet. The innovation side of the users is limited and many businesses will collapse. There were many business models that get a threat to existence and only the companies that can afford the premium services monopolized the market. Net neutrality is essential without discriminating against the users, contents, and applications and provides fair use of the Internet (Stiegler, 2013).

Recommendations

The recommendations are to establish a framework with better, faster, and cheaper internet by providing regulations with a key focus on consumer protection, and increased transparency. The ISPs need to have anti-competitive acts and improve fair internet usage for everyone. The state and federal regulations need to provide regulations that mandate the ISPs to provide consistent network access. Internet openness needs to be established for the ISPs to provide transparency with respect to business practices, network performance, and accessibility. There should be controls established that discourage malpractices and promotes good conduct for the ISPs. These fair practices will help innovators and investors to get attracted to use the internet for business needs. The regulations need to be established to promote investments in telecommunications rather than discourage innovation in telecommunication. The FCC needs to provide a governing body that monitors and assesses the ISP’s fair usage practices and methods. These assessments and audits will provide an efficient way of bringing net neutrality and provide fair practices (Belli & Filippi, 2015).

Future Research

The future research for net neutrality is the self-resilient model in which the technology can be accelerated and optimized to meet the regulator’s needs of promoting net neutrality. The technologies were rapidly evolving and modern technologies like artificial intelligence, deep learning, machine learning, and cognitive technologies were providing sophisticated tools and technologies to provide assessment and monitoring tools. These tools were focused on providing a self-resilient model that determine the compliance deviations and established the methods to bring them back to the normal state. These technologies can be effectively used to bring net neutrality with regulations and compliance requirements (Miller, 2018).

References

1. Belli, L., & Filippi, D., P. (2015). Net Neutrality Compendium: Human Rights, Free Competition and the Future of the Internet, New York, NY: Springer.
2. Hazlett, W. T. (2011). The Fallacy of Net Neutrality, New York, NY: Encounter Books
3. Marsden, T., C. (2017). Network Neutrality: From Policy to Law to Regulation, Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
4. Miller, R. (2018). Transforming the Future (Open Access): Anticipation in the 21st Century, Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: Routledge.
5. Pickard, V. & Berman, E., D. (2019). After Net Neutrality: A New Deal for the Digital Age, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
6. Stigler, Z. (2013). Regulating the Web: Network Neutrality and the Fate of the Open Internet, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.