The Daily Tar Heel
Printing news. Raising hell. Since 1893.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 Newsletters Latest print issue

We keep you informed.

Help us keep going. Donate Today.
The Daily Tar Heel

Opinion: Cat videos for all!

Net neutrality will preserve internet's democratic ideal.

The FCC’s decision to approve net neutrality and protect an open internet is a historical victory for broadband communication, consumer protection and, broadly, freedom of speech.

The alternative, or paid prioritization, would have allowed internet service providers to act as gatekeepers for access. ISPs would have the power to speed up or slow down broadband service based on customers’ differentiated service fees and the content they attempt to access.

This decision is in accordance with the best values of a democratic society where every person is given an equal opportunity to access information. Today’s internet, which has become a near necessity for most people, should not be a pay-to-play system.

Detractors say the FCC is overstepping its federal mandate and using an obsolete reclassification method, Title II of the Telecommunications Act, first passed in 1934. Verizon Wireless went so far as to issue a press release in typewriter-style text to display its displeasure with the antiquated nature of the decision’s foundation. The company titled the press release “FCC’s ‘Throwback Thursday’ Move Imposes 1930s Rule on the Internet.”

Title II was designed to limit a predictable pattern of large communications companies having total control over consumer barriers to entry. This was the FCC’s role in the early telecommunications era, and it is appropriately applied today against the same threat in the information age.

Service providers seem to assume that the right to monetize web content and the right to differentially regulate access to that content itself both belong to them. Of course, proprietors have every right to make money through web commerce, but those providing access to that marketplace should not be entitled to influence the way we interact with it.

This decision in favor of neutrality can help innovators and entrepreneurs within the UNC community and the Triangle area. Startups, rightly assuming the internet to be a public utility, can build their business concepts around that assumption without worrying that ISPs could interfere and discriminate against their customer base in the future.

Market-changing innovators such as Netflix will not have to bow to the powers of access held by the ISPs. Detractors will pitch today’s decision as one which limits innovation. We believe it does the opposite.

Conceiving the internet as a public utility promotes diverse knowledge and information-sharing. Allowing providers to limit access to certain types of content and promote access to others gives them undue power over this process.

To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.