According to the USA Today article, Net Neutrality is essentially an idea that having an open internet is the best option. The principle is that ISPs should give consumers access to all legal content on an equal basis without favoring or blocking sources based on payment amounts. It means that ISPs cannot create “fast-lanes” for higher paying customers and cannot slow down or “throttle” others. Net Neutrality wants to treat the Internet like a common utility like water, gas and electricity. This is summed up by the Lifehacker article, “Users should be able to use their bandwidth however they want (as long as it’s legal), and internet service providers should not be able to provide priority service to any corner of the internet.”
The argument for Net Neutrality is that people do not want to give too much power because it could be abused. If Comcast has a similar service to Netflix they could throttle speeds to Netflix and drive traffic to their platform. This is wrong because it destroys the idea of free market and allowing consumers to choose products based on their merit not because an ISP is controlling their internet speed.
The argument against Net Neutrality is that ISPs have a right to distribute their network differently among services. They argue that giving preferential treatment for certain things is sometimes required. Lifehacker lays out their argument as this, “[Comcast/AT&T] themselves aren’t “the internet”—they’re merely a gateway the internet, and if they’re each allowed to manage their networks differently, you’re more likely to have competition between service providers which ultimately, they claim, is better for the users. “
I am in favor of Net Neutrality because I fear that big ISPs could collude and slow down traffic to their competitors and break the free market. A way to enforce it would be to create a board or agency that just monitors the data flow from Comcast and AT&T and see if there are anomalies in access speeds. I do not feel over regulation and stopping innovation would really exist because I feel like the Internet is a utility. By regulating say electricity it’s not like there has been a halt in innovation from products that use electricity it has actually made it more accessible. Internet has become a staple of society and therefore fair access should be a basic right.
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