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  • Essay / Net Neutrality and people's attitudes towards it

    We value our Net Neutrality, we fought for it in 2015 and won against Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as AT&T, Verizon, Comcast , to name a few. However, the FCC (or ISPs) did not back down and fought to end net neutrality starting around 2018 and won against the majority. People have become discouraged, lost interest, and while we can still fight for Net Neutrality in Texas, the majority apparently don't care enough to fight for it. What is net neutrality? Think of the Internet as a set of highways that take you from one part to another. Net neutrality is the belief that these "highways" should not be controlled, owned or manipulated by any private organization without the express approval of the government. Whatever happens to net neutrality, we can be sure that it will affect everyone who is connected to the Internet, even those who are not. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayThe United States did not always have net neutrality, it was a reactionary regulation due to exploitation tactics used by a small percentage of ISPs. An example of this could be how Comcast throttled Netflix, resulting in their videos streaming slowly, with frequent interruptions, until Netflix paid Comcast a large (average) sum. Once we achieved net neutrality in 2015 through a majority vote, the same company (Comcast) had to agree not to favor NBC's content over other video providers, like Youtube, when the company acquired NBC Universal over ten years ago (Medium IPSX). Net neutrality aims to discourage ISPs from treating competition for online sites unequally (Medium IPSX). Without net neutrality, there is nothing to stop this kind of thing from happening online. Without it, ISPs might decide to charge their customers extra per month to access websites like Netflix and Spotify, and that's before you pay for your subscription. “Without net neutrality, if you want to organize people to bring it back, it would be legal for ISPs to restrict access to websites or apps that promote net neutrality,” according to Emma Lindsay (Medium). ISPs would be allowed to do what's called "deep packet inspection" and block you from sending messages containing the phrase "net neutrality" (average IPSX). In a sense, this infringes on your freedom of expression and that of the press. People also point to the equal time rule, a rule that requires equal representation on "shows", because they all support free speech and freedom from censorship. Economically, the wave of digital entrepreneurship, which has enabled technology to become a “trillion-dollar field,” could slow without net neutrality. The repeal could prohibit or increase the cap for startups (new businesses) to compete with tech giants like Netflix or Amazon, which already have the funding to fund a network like this. If you can't pay the ransom, you can't compete with those who can. So why would anyone, other than ISPs, want net neutrality? According to comments received by the FCC that were not contrived, almost no one wants it (MediaShift). However, that doesn't mean there aren't good arguments against it. Opponents of net neutrality want.