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The Battle For Net Neutrality

    Do you know has kept your beloved Wifi in place? Most people aren’t even aware of the fact that net neutrality existed, let alone the fact that it was in danger of being terminated. Just this last Thursday, December 14, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted upon their decision for net neutrality. Initially, the vote was locked at a 2-2 with the remaining member debating upon their choice, until they sided with those who wished to terminate net neutrality. Their decision has not yet officially been put into effect, but this is the first big step on a road that leads to unknown destinations. There’s a bill being assembled by the Senate that’s purpose is to block the FCC’s decision and keep the rules of net neutrality firmly in place. But to pass it, they’ll need a total of 30 senators on board. As of now, the future of our open and free internet is held in the hands of a select few individuals in power. We will all have to wait with baited breath to see the final outcome.

    What is net neutrality? The Merriam Webster dictionary defines it as, “the idea, principle, or requirement that internet service providers should or must treat all Internet data as the same regardless of its kind, source, or destination.”

    Essentially, it’s what keeps the internet from costing you $500 a month. It’s the protection and regulations set in place to protect the consumer from the exploitation of internet providers. Without net neutrality, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, Sprint, and all other internet providers can charge their customers whatever they please for internet.

    On top of that, specific streaming applications would have free range to charge even more for their services with no rules to keep them in check.

    If the U.S. does end up losing net neutrality, it would be a free-for-all for your ISP, or Internet Service Provider. According to a website called Save The Internet, “An ISP could slow down its competitors’ content or block political opinions it disagreed with. ISPs could charge extra fees to the few content companies that could afford to pay for preferential treatment — relegating everyone else to a slower tier of service. This would destroy the open internet.”

    With an open internet, access to information and news cannot be limited by anyone except the user. The ISPs cannot filter what it likes and what it doesn’t or only limit their customers to certain news sources and applications.

    Without net neutrality, minorities that don’t hold favor with the corporations in charge could very easily be blocked out, their voice smothered. Save the Internet also states that, “The consequences would be particularly devastating for marginalized communities media outlets have misrepresented or failed to serve. People of color, the LGBTQ community, indigenous peoples and religious minorities in the United States rely on the open internet to organize, access economic and educational opportunities, and fight back against systemic discrimination.”

“An ISP could slow down its competitors’ content or block political opinions it disagreed with. ISPs could charge extra fees to the few content companies that could afford to pay for preferential treatment — relegating everyone else to a slower tier of service. This would destroy the open internet.”

— Save The Internet

    If the FCC destroys net neutrality in order to make more money, it will be more than an inconvenience to those who are growing to rely more and more heavily on the internet. It will put a roadblock in the social revolution that has been making its move across America in recent decades.

    On a more personal level, the Jonathan Alder School district would take a significant hit from the termination of net neutrality. Without the regulations in place, ISPs would have the freedom to not give education providers discounts, charging them the same or more than the rest of their customers. Jonathan Alder High School’s Director of Technology, Mr. Bret Longberry, stated that, “There have always been pretty deep discounts for K-12 and higher education and when the [loss] of net neutrality comes to play. Then, the providers don’t have to have those discounts to education anymore. And some of those discounts are pretty steep.”

    As a result, prices in the community such as taxes and school fees would have to almost certainly be raised. Principle of Jonathan Alder High School Michael Aurin agrees that such price increases would be inevitable, but only if the ISPs refuse to provide education providers with the discounts that they currently have.

Jonathan Alder students working on Chromebooks

    While Sean Brokaw doesn’t believe that students would have a decrease in access to the services that the school provides, he also believes that the cost to the school will increase no matter what, saying that, “We would have companies starting to charge us to use their services. Take Canvas and Clever for example: not saying that they would, but that potential is there. Anybody who posts multimedia content would have to start paying more to get that data out there.”

     With the loss of net neutrality, the way we live our lives will be altered in both professional, educational and personal settings. 

 

The Chromebooks that Jonathan Alder teachers use on a daily basis

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