Opinion Net win
Earlier this year, the FCC controversially seemed to undermine net neutrality, attracting fierce criticism and prompting a rethink.
It isn’t surprising that an issue as central to the networked economy as net neutrality has tended to evade mainstream debate and consideration, given the arcana that is modern telecommunications law. Gradually, however, and especially over the past year, concerted attempts at net neutrality activism by internet content companies like Vimeo and Reddit — including, on September 10, a “Go Slow” day that envisaged what tiered internet access for content providers could be like — has raised public consciousness. Now, US President Barack Obama’s unequivocal support for an open, undifferentiated internet, and his call to telecom regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to lay down the “strongest possible rules” to protect the internet’s current structure, brings the issue front and centre.
In the simplest terms, net neutrality is the principle that internet service providers (ISPs) should not be allowed to discriminate between packets of data. This means that ISPs cannot restrict speed or access for companies depending on how much bandwidth they consume.
Net neutrality advocates persuasively argue that the internet is akin to a public utility, as essential to the functioning of modern society as electricity. Creating “fast lanes” for certain content, or for only some deep-pocketed privileged websites, would harm the level playing field that has been integral to the emergence of once-upstarts like Google and Facebook.
In the US, ISPs have campaigned against net neutrality, and a section of the now-in-control-of-Congress Republican party is bitterly opposed to it. Earlier this year, the FCC controversially seemed to undermine net neutrality, attracting fierce criticism and prompting a rethink. So Obama’s use of his bully pulpit — the White House cannot dictate the FCC’s decision — to speak out strongly in favour of it is welcome, especially as the FCC is due to unveil new rules on net neutrality soon. As the debate continues in the US, India too should enshrine net neutrality in law.
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