As of recent years, a new concept has shown the potential to change a key component for most modern day individuals, the Internet. The name of this concept is Net Neutrality, a relatively modern concept that has already caused significant change in the political sphere, and it has proven to be a very divisive issue, essentially polarizing the political spectrum as well as the society that encompasses the Internet into a wild debate. More importantly, this concept has actually caused change at the legislative level, and it will not seem to end there. This concept has gained significant momentum since Tim Wu (2003), a senior lawyer and special adviser at the Office of the New York State Attorney General, coined the term in 2003, and the concept
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Proponents of NN typically argue that the practices outlined above, regarding ISPs as “gatekeepers”, would result in ISPs abusing said power in order to improve their profits as a company, or belittle opposing companies. This idea stems form the belief that ISPs would perform a practice known as paid prioritization, which essentially involves the ISPs offering a service for content producers to pay to receive priority, or faster speeds for their data to reach the consumers. This party argues that this practice damages smaller companies and belittles the principal tenants of an “open Internet”, a phrase that has been paraded by an endless amount of NN proponents. There is substantial evidence that supports these claims, one such example is a study called The Debate on Net Neutrality: A Policy Perspective performed by Dr. Hsing Cheng (2011), a professor from the University of Florida, in which he determines the effects of a society and market wherein NN is abandoned, and by using complex equations that represent real-world market trends, he finds substantial evidence that aids the proponents’ …show more content…
As discussed previously, whether NN is abandoned or enforced, the consumers can be impacted both in the quality of the service they receive from ISPs, and the content they consume from content producers. Additionally, this sort of movement could greatly impact individuals who may be attempting to start a sort of Internet company, or attempting to make their presence known on the Internet; whereas in an environment with NN they may be able to reach a clientele easily, without NN these entrepreneurs may see an increase in the initial capital they need to invest, if they need to pay fees to ISPs in order to reach their clientele. Similarly, a content producer may be forced to increase the process of their merchandise or services in order to accommodate for this increase in fees from ISPs, therefore harming consumers. In light of these effects, it can be plainly seen that this debate over NN has the potential to change the Internet as we know it, and a position must be taken in order to ensure the safety of us the consumers and
Proponents of NN typically argue that the practices outlined above, regarding ISPs as “gatekeepers”, would result in ISPs abusing said power in order to improve their profits as a company, or belittle opposing companies. This idea stems form the belief that ISPs would perform a practice known as paid prioritization, which essentially involves the ISPs offering a service for content producers to pay to receive priority, or faster speeds for their data to reach the consumers. This party argues that this practice damages smaller companies and belittles the principal tenants of an “open Internet”, a phrase that has been paraded by an endless amount of NN proponents. There is substantial evidence that supports these claims, one such example is a study called The Debate on Net Neutrality: A Policy Perspective performed by Dr. Hsing Cheng (2011), a professor from the University of Florida, in which he determines the effects of a society and market wherein NN is abandoned, and by using complex equations that represent real-world market trends, he finds substantial evidence that aids the proponents’ …show more content…
As discussed previously, whether NN is abandoned or enforced, the consumers can be impacted both in the quality of the service they receive from ISPs, and the content they consume from content producers. Additionally, this sort of movement could greatly impact individuals who may be attempting to start a sort of Internet company, or attempting to make their presence known on the Internet; whereas in an environment with NN they may be able to reach a clientele easily, without NN these entrepreneurs may see an increase in the initial capital they need to invest, if they need to pay fees to ISPs in order to reach their clientele. Similarly, a content producer may be forced to increase the process of their merchandise or services in order to accommodate for this increase in fees from ISPs, therefore harming consumers. In light of these effects, it can be plainly seen that this debate over NN has the potential to change the Internet as we know it, and a position must be taken in order to ensure the safety of us the consumers and