“Net Neutrality” — Will it Finally Happen?
The subject of Net Neutrality has been discuss among both lawmakers and technophiles over the last few years. If you’ve been living under a rock, the basic idea is this: ISPs should not be allowed to use “biasing” or other means to manipulate, block, or otherwise affect user traffic. Under the strict definition of “neutrality,” an ISP would not be permitted to, for instance, provide slower service to customers when they request a URL from a company with which the ISP didn’t have a special agreement.
If you think this sort of thing doesn’t happen, just look at search results from various online phone directories. Look up “auto repair” or some other service in your town. You’ll probably see certain businesses (those that have paid the directory service) show up first, while others are pushed to the bottom of the list if they appear at all. Some ISPs want to apply the same sort of rules to overall user network traffic. If Net Neutrality becomes a reality, they’ll be prohibited from engaging in these practices.
Happily, it seems the FCC might actually be ready to act. In a speech this week, the chairman proposed two new rules that would help ensure ISPs can’t bias traffic unfairly. Under the proposed rules, “carriers should not be allowed to favor certain types of content or applications over others and that they could not degrade traffic of Internet companies that offer services similar to those of the carriers.”
This is good news for users. The Internet was founded on the principle that information should be available equally to everyone. Today’s advertisers already push that envelope by offering location-based ads, biasing in favor of certain companies, and search-engine manipulation techniques that push certain results to the top of result lists. But advertisers aren’t common carriers — ISPs (and telecommunications companies in general) are. Common carriers aren’t supposed to examine, manipulate, or block traffic. ISPs demanded this status in the ’90s to protect them from being subpoenaed for aiding and abetting criminals who might use their services. They shouldn’t be allowed to change the rules now in order to improve their bottom line.