Many people may not be aware of what net neutrality is. Well, I want to help change that. Net neutrality is the basic principle that all content found on the internet should be treated equally. This means that any internet service provider such as Comcast or Verizon can’t slow down and throttle your internet speed, or even completely block content that they don’t want you to view on the web. As of June, this year net neutrality was repealed. Internet service providers currently have little to no restraint, and they have the to power to slow down, or even completely block content that you view on the web.

This affects you because if internet service providers have free reign to do whatever they want. They are going to increase the amount that you are going to have to pay for your- internet access. It is also likely that they will implement a paywall for access to certain web services. It would function similar to how currently cable companies offer their channels, in bundles. The more expensive bundle is the more channels and services that you are going to be able to use. A lot of internet services already cost money to use, so you would have to pay even more. You would have to pay the internet service provider as well as online service that you have to pay for as well. There is no actual guarantee that this will happen, but big companies are likely to find some way to squeeze extra money out of your pockets and into theirs. You may be thinking “Well, they aren’t doing this now, so…”  but the problem with this argument is that net neutrality just got repealed, so the ISP’s aren’t going to make any crazy changes now because then the public would be upset. If ISP’s ease into this idea over time though, then the people aren’t going to notice as much. That’s why we have to be really careful with the absence of net neutrality. Right now, we have little to no protection on the internet.

It would make sense if the FCC got rid of malicious content that was found on the web, and that was their reason for getting rid of net neutrality. Maybe, they wanted to help the consumers by making sure that they aren’t at risk of viruses or scams of any sort and got rid of the content. Well, that isn’t the case. ISP’s are using the absence of net neutrality to take advantage of content on the internet for their own personal gain. For example, Verizon has been found in the past to slow down or throttle speeds of services such as Netflix and YouTube. How would these companies deal with a situation like this? If you’re Netflix or YouTube you’re not going to stand for this, but who are you going to complain to when FCC are the ones that removed net neutrality. They are supposed to be the ones protecting the internet.

Ajit Pai’s character is in question here. He previously worked for Verizon, this should make you question him a bit. I think what is more surprising is the amount of backlash he received from the internet about net neutrality. So much that, he put a video on YouTube in response to all the backlash he was receiving. This video seemed incredibly out of touch with the community. Sure, you can still do those things, but that’s not the point. The point is that laws are being removed that protects what’s on the internet and us when we use the internet.

Signing this petition is meant to bring awareness to this issue. It tells the FCC and the government that we are not ok with the removal of net neutrality. We want to bring net neutrality back. Without net neutrality, the cost to use the internet is going to skyrocket, and likely you don’t want to spend any more money than you must. If we just let the head chairman of the FCC take away our rights on the internet, what will stop them there?