Benefits Of Net Neutrality

For decades, millions of people have had full control about how they operate the web, due to a law called Net Neutrality. This law prevents companies such as Verizon and AT&T from tampering with a user’s internet speed and from blocking access to their favorite websites. It allows people online to freely express themselves without having restrictions by their Internet Service Provider. As of December 14, 2018, the F.C.C. Chairman Ajit Pai repealed Net Neutrality in a 3 to 2 vote. If this law stays repealed, then over the next couple of years companies will have full control on what a user allowed to view online, which will make internet freedom non-existent. Net Neutrality limits freedom on the web, increases the cost to browse the internet,

Companies can slow down other competitors' services in order to make their own seem better. For instance, Comcast can force their subscribers to utilize their video-on-demand service by slowing down similar services such as Netflix (Sprigman 2). Essentially, acts like this are outright discriminating against other services to display the provider that the consumer subscribed to look better (Baumann 1). Without Net Neutrality, “internet services can abuse their privileges by interfering with the ability of users to access the content of their choosing” (Hong and Morris 1). This means that the consumers’ service provider can ban access to websites entirely if they desired, an action that can impede freedom on the internet. “With the industry only dominated by a handful of companies, the typical American has a choice of only a few providers” (The New Republic

“A good reason why companies like Verizon and Comcast do not block websites or impeding disfavored services is so they do not drive their customers away” (Gattuso 3). Losing customers would not benefit a company, so it is rare any company would perform practices such as this. However, with no Net Neutrality regulations, additional companies will open up to ideas such as this. In turn, the company is backing the customers into a wall, forcing them to abide by their rules if they want any online access at all. Increasing prices may appear like an easy way for corporations to enlarge profits, but there are downsides to this method. Not everyone will have the ability to afford the internet prices in today's world. If companies jacked up prices for internet service, “low-income communities and communities of color would not be able to afford such prices” (Hong and Morris 2). If the internet service providers are losing customers since they are unable to afford the increased prices, then they are actually losing money in the long-run. “ISPs are more interested in gaining users, rather than driving them away” (Gattuso 3). Competition is what assembles any industry to thrive. If Verizon were to lower their prices for Wi-Fi per month, then more consumers would go over to their service. This in turn will cause other companies to lower their