Editorial: Net Neutrality must be protected for the people

Internet freedom as we know it will soon be gone.

The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday to take away your open internet and give it to internet service providers (ISPs). They have given ISPs the power to manipulate your internet experience, controlling what you see on the web based on their business interests.

The FCC should not have lifted current regulations, and their vote must be reversed. Net Neutrality is key to protecting the open internet that has become an integral part of our livelihoods in today’s society, and it must remain.

Net Neutrality is the idea that internet service providers, such as Comcast, Verizon and AT&T, must give equal access to all sites, services and content on the internet for users. It prevents ISPs from throttling your connection to web content based on business, keeping the internet an open, level playing field for all companies and content creators.

For example, Spotify cannot pay a premium to Comcast to have faster streaming speeds than SoundCloud, and AT&T cannot make a deal with Amazon to give its users exclusive or unrestricted access to any of their services under Net Neutrality. Likewise, websites cannot be forced to pay extra to keep their speeds even, and ISPs cannot section off websites and sell them in extra packages to users.

Until now.

The only group that benefits from — or for the most part even wants — the removal of strict internet regulations is ISPs. Without Net Neutrality, ISPs gain control of how information reaches you, and they can speed up, slow down or even block your access to any site.

Imagine stopping every 30 seconds to wait for YouTube to buffer because Google refused to pay premiums to Verizon. Or even worse, picture being barred access to Netflix entirely due to an exclusivity deal from another ISP.

These are some of the real risks now that Net Neutrality will be removed, and that’s the terrifying part. Without strict control from the FCC to maintain the open internet, your freedom to explore the web how you want is compromised.

Protecting our net is not a bipartisan issue, either, as people and corporations alike have shown their support for the open internet. 73 percent of opinionated Democratic and Republican voters were in favor of current restrictions according to Politico. Google, Facebook, Paypal and 41 other corporate behemoths joined forces as the Internet Association in support of Net Neutrality.

On the other hand, Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association have spent $572 million in the last decade lobbying the FCC and government for less restrictions according to research by MapLight. It’s millions of people versus millions of dollars.

Still, the FCC remains unfazed despite the overwhelming opposition and the millions of comments against the plan on their website. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai believes that his regulation rollback will promote competition and that a “free-market” approach to ISPs will allow them to essentially self-regulate — if one ISP makes a move that displeases consumers, they can simply switch providers.

His argument is fundamentally flawed, however, since most of the U.S. hardly has a choice in the ISP they use. According to a report released by the FCC themselves, roughly one-third of the population had more than one ISP in their area that offered broadband speeds of 25 Mbps or more, the FCC’s internet speed standard.

Additionally, Pai stated in a Keynote speech Dec. 5 that under his plan, the FCC will simply shift from “pre-emptive regulation” to “targeted enforcement.” Instead of establishing set restrictions on what ISPs can or cannot do, Pai wants to ease regulation until they infringe on their customers. In an interview with NPR, he stated that with “after-the-fact regulations,” violations by ISPs would not go unseen.

We cannot trust Pai and the FCC to effectively regulate, though. Even under the former strict regulation, ISPs have been caught engaging in anti-competitive business on multiple occasions without any interference.

In 2012, AT&T blocked its users from accessing FaceTime unless they upgraded to a premium plan. In 2013, Comcast slowed download speeds for Netflix roughly 20% until Netflix agreed to pay the ISP, where an almost 50% increase in speeds followed over just two months according to data from Netflix. Now, Verizon and Comcast have both hinted toward implementing “flexible” fast lanes for paying companies after Net Neutrality is removed in filings to the FCC.

Furthermore, we cannot trust that the FCC will work to prohibit anti-competitive acts for us since they have already acted against us by trying to take away Net Neutrality.

Pai and the FCC have refused to listen to the people, and the only way we can make ourselves heard is to be louder. Although the vote to strip away our freedom has already passed, the battle to protect our open internet is not over. According to Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, the vote is expected to immediately be challenged in courts, possibly prompting Congress to attempt to legislate a “fix.”

To protect our internet freedom, we must contact our senators and representatives to make a legal change. We must protest the FCC’s decision and fight to reverse the regulation removal. Most of all, we must make sure that the fight for open internet does not end with the FCC — it ends with us.