Pro Net Neutrality: Op-Eds and Editorials

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Don’t Nix Net Neutrality

October 23, 2006 - link >>

Minnesota Daily News (University of MN)

Recent developments could mean the end of the World Wide Web as we know it.

What would you say if someone wanted to turn the information superhighway into a toll road? Last year, a Supreme Court ruling and Federal Communications Commission decision declared that the Internet does not fall under existing communication service laws, putting Internet regulation in legal limbo. Since then, cable and telephone companies have been discussing how to profit from this decision. One of their ideas is to create a “multitiered” Internet.

That sound you’re hearing is the death knell of equality, or net neutrality, on the Web. Net neutrality means that after paying for service, everyone can access the Internet as fast as their connection will allow, without artificial handicaps from the Internet provider. This “multitiered” approach that telecommunications companies are planning is really means that there will be a fast Internet capable of handling video and other high-bandwidth activities, and a slow Internet that can’t, and if you want access to the fast one, be ready to pay up.

Telecommunications companies would also be able to charge extra to visit certain Web sites based on how frequently they’re accessed and what kind of information they provide, setting up barriers to entry that never existed before. Those that can’t or won’t pay could see their accessibility limited. This would give a huge advantage to content providers with deep financial resources, and make it unlikely for upstart ones like Youtube.com to succeed.

Groups as diverse as Moveon.org to the Christian Coalition have spoken in support of net neutrality. They fear that these changes could give telecommunications companies power tantamount to censorship by limiting what the people are able to access.

This multitiered system would go against the egalitarian nature of the Internet, where anyone with a nominal amount of money and time can make their voice heard throughout the world. Its importance in our daily lives, especially as college students, cannot be underestimated.

Congress will consider the issue after the November elections. If legislation to protect net neutrality isn’t passed soon, we might find that free speech comes with a price tag. 

Net neutrality or Net censorship?

July 24, 2006 - link >>

Caroline Fredrickson, Lobbyist, ACLU, CNET

Dick Armey’s recent column on CNET News.com is long on criticism of the Christian Coalition but woefully short of facts about the Net neutrality debate.

In “Net ignorance of the Christian Coalition,” Armey conveniently fails to mention that Net neutrality was the law on the Internet until 2005. The dramatic expansion and innovation that he lauds existed and was made possible because the law prior to 2005 prohibited Internet service providers and other providers from erecting toll booths on the information superhighway.

Why the Democratic Ethic of the World Wide Web May Be About to End

May 31, 2006 - link >>

The New York Times

Adam Cohen Editorial Observer column opposes any fee system for World Wide Web that would diminish it as platform on which everyone in world can communicate on equal basis; says telecommunications and cable companies are waging misleading campaign, with slogan ‘hands off the Internet,’ that tries to look like grass-roots effort to protect ‘net neutrality,’ when they are actually trying to stop government from protecting Internet, so they can get their own hands on it

Keeping a Democratic Web

May 02, 2006 - link >>

New York Times

"Net neutrality” is a concept that is still unfamiliar to most Americans, but it keeps the Internet democratic. Cable and telephone companies that provide Internet service are talking about creating a two-tiered Internet, in which Web sites that pay them large fees would get priority over everything else. Opponents of these plans are supporting Net-neutrality legislation, which would require all Web sites to be treated equally. Net neutrality recently suffered a setback in the House, but there is growing hope that the Senate will take up the cause.

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