I have a quick this-or-that question for you. Would you rather have your Internet usage regulated by your ISP (Internet Service Provider), or the Federal Communications Commission? Okay, allow me to elaborate. Would you rather your ISP have the power to block sites, determining what networks or sites you can or can’t use? Or would you prefer the FCC have the power to legislate over the Internet?
This is the debate (or one of them, anyway) that is currently dividing Congress, as well as many Internet users–and even companies. John Lilly, the CEO of Mozilla, voiced support for the proposed “net neutrality” rules in a recent editorial for the Wall Street Journal (footnote 1). Sites such as SaveTheInternet.com have sprung up in recent weeks, some, including the above, collecting digital signatures for a petition to send to Congress in favor of net neutrality. In the meantime, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (of Tennessee) is presenting a House bill that would prevent the FCC from making any regulations regarding Internet services, arguing that allowing FCC to be imposed over the Internet will lead to the same regulatory level of censorship that is present in TV and radio (footnote 2).
Most of Nova is familiar with what a “non-neutral” Internet looks like. Anyone who uses a school computer (as this reporter is doing while writing this article) has probably experienced the frustration of the site you want to access being blocked. Now, at Nova, this is the filtering imposed by the Seattle Public Schools district. This may be an editorial comment, but I think most people can agree that students at a public school probably shouldn’t have access to all content of the Internet on a computer for school use. (There are some sick weirdos out there, you know.)
But imagine your personal Internet connection, at home, having “filtering,” or access blocked to certain sites. Imagine if AT&T, AOL, Comcast, or whatever ISP you use, had the power to block you from accessing sites of competing companies, or legal but generally frowned upon clients such as BitTorrent. Legally speaking, an ISP could do that right now (footnote 3). But is legislating that they can’t block access a protection of free Internet usage, or is it an imposition on the business rights of the ISPs?
I must jump in here and say that it isn’t really my job as a journalist to tell you which is right. The issue is pretty significant, though, to all frequent users of the Internet, which is most high school students today.
How does the Nova community feel about net neutrality? And, while we’re at it, the increased filtering that has been put upon our school computers this year? (Okay, that’s probably a different article.) I’d really like to start a serious debate in our Nova Knows comments section, so if you have your own thoughts on net neutrality and how much power ISPs or the FCC should have over your personal Internet usage, take a minute to leave a comment on this article!
Footnotes (sources cited):
1. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355059,00.asp
2. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2354611,00.asp
3. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2354611,00.asp
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