By Ryan Downs
In Issue 10, Volume XLII, the article “Demolished Net Neutrality unlikely to hurt customers” discussed the Supreme Court’s decision to end net neutrality and the effects it will have on the layperson of average socioeconomic status.
Those who have taken notice have a variety of opinions on the change, many of which are negative. There have been critiques concerning the fact that little press has discussed how cable companies are permitted to charge popular websites to use their bandwidth. On campus, several students were willing to talk about the issue, including the Association for Computing Machinery.
The ACM is a CSM-affiliated student organization. According to csusm.edu links, it is responsible for putting together “a weekly lecture series on academic topics on computer science, mathematics and entrepreneurship. Additionally ACM organizes field trips to local businesses and offers workshops on various topics. ACM meets every Tuesday during U-hour in SCI II, Room 242.”
“It’s like DLC for the internet,” said Kevin, referring to the controversial practice of video game companies charging extra for downloadable content. “It’s just another way for companies to get more money from clients who are already paying!”
“It also has a lot to do with control. If a website is undergoing a copyright dispute; like if it features a video or music that the owner has a problem with, the cable company can shut the whole website down,” another student, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
This naturally carries issue for many of the Internet’s more popular critics and entertainers, many of who have dealt with copyright claims meant to take down their videos, despite the fact that they are generally protected under satire and critical law. Nevertheless, a corporate-controlled Internet could do a lot of harm to these smaller businesses.
“[Net neutrality] is important, but growing difficult with ISP’s [Internet Service Providers] creating a monopoly. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out in the next couple of years,” the President of CSUSM’s Association for Computing Machinery, Maxwell Partington, said.
Chief among these more financial concerns are the growing worries over the anticipated merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, which could allow the groups to practically monopolize the cable industry; which, for the moment at least, controls the Internet. The only other option lies in Cloud computing, which is very quickly being dominated by Amazon.
The backlash on the Internet is more common, with Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited with the creation of the world-wide-web showing a large amount of concern.
“When I created the web, I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission,” Lee said during an interview. “Control of information is hugely powerful. In the US, the threat is that companies control what I can access for commercial reasons…there is a very strong short-term incentive for a company to grab control of TV distribution over the Internet even though it is against the long-term interests of the industry.” In the end, the frightening thing is how our only option is to wait and see.
There is however some dissent to the move for net neutrality as taken on by the Federal Communications Commission.
“The Internet was free and open before the FCC adopted net neutrality rules. It remains free and open today. Net neutrality has always been a solution in search of a problem,” FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, one of two Republicans on the Commission, said.
Some argue that the legal action is unnecessary and some that it is an attempt for the government to claim more power.
“Republicans have opposed the FCC’s attempts to enact net neutrality rules, arguing that the Internet has thrived because it has been free from government regulation,” Jim Puzzanghera reported in the LA Times.
It does remain clear that without net neutrality, businesses like the less than six major companies that control cable, can strangle bandwidth and loading speeds of content as they see fit and order search results similarly.