Internet and computing has become a vital part of our daily life activities, take a moment and realize how easy it is for everyone to connect to each other and with the convenience of a few touches on the screen one can get any knowledge about anything in the world at any instance. There have been several privacy concerns to the users who are concerned about companies and ISPs looking at their data and how they use the internet, however, there is a bigger problem that the users are to face if proper action is not taken and it is known as Net Neutrality.
What is Net Neutrality?
The basic idea behind the term Net Neutrality is the ideology of keeping everything on the internet neutral. There are no involvements of large enterprises in how the internet works and similarly, the Internet-Server-Providers have no control over which websites a person is surfing on a daily basis.
Ajit Pai, Donald Trump’s FCC chairman and a former lawyer at Verizon is trying hard to negate the concept of Net Neutrality by defining perimeters and rules which would keep someone of websites from being accessed by users and other being accessed with a pretty fast speed. The problem here is that the government of the authorities will be able to choose which websites people can access and the ones they are not allowed to access. Basically, there would be a governing body sitting on top of the internet having autonomy over what people can see and what they would not be able to surf online.
What would happen if we lose Net Neutrality?
The internet has served as the grounds for innovative thoughts and ideas and these are the ideas that have changed the way we live. The convenience that has been added in our lives due to all these amazing thoughts will be jeopardized without the existence of a neutral internet
The freedom of speech will be no more, the government will decide whether something can make it to the world or not. This means if something in the world is happening against the will of the people there would be no way to shed light on the issue.
Huge enterprises which includes and are not limited to AT&T, Verizon, Google etc. will pay the authorities for staying on top of the internet traffic where as small companies and organizations will be left to dry.
What can be done to stop this?
The proposal against net neutrality have been floated in the past but due to the continuous and stop protest from people the proposal was rejected. It is time for us to join hands again by pledging against the move to a restricted internet and this can be done simple by heading over to Join the fight and adding your pledge!