The Net Neutrality Laws

Kang In early March of 2018, an email service called Tutanota was unavailable for customers of Comcast. Once customers tried to connect to Tutanota with a different ISP (Internet Service Provider) it seemed to work. Consumers began to speculate, and as they thought Comcast had blocked traffic through the site, breaking the net neutrality laws. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) wants to remove these laws and make it so ISPs can begin to discriminate any data they want, which could mean your favorite apps/websites will potentially be inaccessible. (Whittaker)

The Net Neutrality laws should not be repealed because it could affect the internet for Americans negatively forever because your favorite apps or sites such as Netflix, Instagram, and Youtube can be blocked by your internet service provider. Also, these changes will affect anyone who uses the internet for anything. Anything done on the internet is tracked in data types called packets, with repealing net neutrality ISPs can track these packets, and see what sites you are visiting and what you are doing. I should not need to explain how this violates your privacy on many levels.

So, you may be wondering, why in the heck would anyone want to get rid of these laws? There are two reasons, the first being that the internet service providers want to make a lot of money, and secondly, people think it will actually help make internet cheaper. People think it will make internet cheaper because the net neutrality laws violate the free market. The free market is a term commonly used in economics that describes the concept that the government has no regulation on how businesses charge their customers. For example, if pizza place #1 sells their pizzas for $10, pizza place #2 will sell there's for $5 so that more people will buy pizzas because they are much cheaper. It's basic economics, the more heavily you regulate something, the less of it you're likely to get.

Says Ajit Pai So, in theory, the prices of the internet could go down, because ISPs like Comcast and Verizon will compete, but there is one flaw. That flaw is monopolies, not the fun board game, but rather a problem in economics. A monopoly is when there is only one provider of certain goods or services. Pseudo monopolies are a common thing, and it is when there is one provider to a certain community, like a town. Pseudo monopolies rule the community in their department, whether that be cable, power, or internet. So, how is this a flaw in the free market? Well, the point of the free market is for business to compete, and reduce their prices to gain more customers, in a monopoly, there is no competition, and ISPs will charge as much as they please because consumers will have no competitor to go to.

So, imagine if there was one grocery store or restaurant in your area, they would charge very unreasonable amounts due to the supply and demand. So, in conclusion, the repealing of the net neutrality laws put in place by Obama in 2015 will make internet potentially cost more, and it will violate consumer's privacy crucially. Even though these new laws are being put in place, it is not too late, Americans need to stand up for their freedom and rule against the laws the FCC is beginning to put in place.

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