‘We will protect the values of an open internet,’ said U.S. Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler in Washington on February 26, 2015.
Photo Credit: Yuri Gripas/Reuters

U.S. net neutrality affects users worldwide

A U.S. decision last week affirmed net neutrality and that has implications for citizens there but also for the millions of others who use internet services that originate in the country.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted a change that would allow it to regulate internet service like a public good. This gives it the power to prevent large U.S. cable providers from charging some users more to have faster service.

Millions of people won

For example, a cable provider might want to charge movie website Netflix more because it is a content competitor and uses up a lot of bandwidth. But grassroots activists mobilized to oppose any preferential treatment for faster connectivity and some four million people filed public grievances to the FCC, and won.

“It’s pretty huge,” says Peter Nowak, tech journalist, blogger and author. “(Net neutrality) has been a key to the internet developing as it has.” He says it has allowed the quintessential nerd in the basement to tinker around with ideas and come up with services which have turned into giants like Google, Facebook or Netflix.

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Risks to cost and innovation

Canada has a strong set of net neutrality rules but if the U.S. did not, internet users here and around the world could have suffered the consequences, says Nowak. If U.S.-based services were charged more by cable providers they would likely pass those extra costs onto users. And if there were fast lanes and slow lanes, Nowak says there would probably be a decrease in innovation.

Net neutrality is ‘equalizing’

It may not have made many headlines, but Nowak says the affirmation of net neutrality by the FCC is very significant: “I don’t think it’s overstating it too much to say that it’s probably been one of the most equalizing and democratic conventions that we’ve ever come up with…so allowing it to continue to be that level playing field is extremely important.”

Categories: Internet, Science & Technology, Society
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