What is Net Neutrality?

General Purpose:

To explain what net neutrality is

Specific Purpose:

To persuade the audience the importance of it being a law

Central Idea:

Net neutrality can prevent internet service providers from favoring one internet source over another.

INTRODUCTION

Many people are unaware of net neutrality and how it impacts their internet service.
As more streaming services come available, the internet service providers are wanting to encourage the use of select services.
Their current method to achieve this is by increasing or decreasing the speed of available streaming services. such as Skype or Hulu.

Internet service providers, or ISP, should be required to treat all information and entertainment providers equally and for a flat amount to ensure that the average person will pay a reasonable fee for their services.
Without regulation, these broadband internet providers will continue to increase their cost and limit the type of information and entertainment available to the average person. Only those people that can afford the costly ISP packages will benefit the most and have access to more information and entertainment.

(Transition: To begin with, let's first focus on understanding the basics of net neutrality.)

BODY

What is net neutrality?

To explain net neutrality, it is necessary to first begin with the ISP's and their connection to media service providers. The media service providers, such as Netflix, Google, and Facebook, reach out to ISP's to seek using their service to become a customer. These companies establish a contract and a fee focusing on the connection speed they will be providing for customers that are wanting to use the media service provider.
This is when net neutrality comes into play. The ISP's can offer the media service providers a variety of packages similar to the different types of cable packages you may be familiar with for your television viewing. The better the speed the higher the cost.

Net neutrality stops ISP's from controlling the speed of the access to different media services. As mentioned before, the speed of the access is established when the media service providers become a customer to the ISP's.
Larger media providers, such as Netflix, have millions of customers that pay for their service, this in turn, provides them with the financial means to pay for a top of the line service with the ISP's.
This is a huge disadvantage for the smaller media providers.

(Transition: Now you may be wondering, how does this impact you?)

The ISP's are restricting your access to seeking out information and using all media services available.
Think of the ISP's as the companies that provide the highways for travel.
The cars on the highway are the media service providers. The ISP's offer a faster lane to the media companies that have paid for the top of the line package.
This means the other media providers are in the slower lanes or could be possibly broken down on the side of the road.

(Transition: Why does this matter to you?)

III. This can impact you in two different manners.

The first is that the media service providers can pass the higher cost they are being charged for this fast lane, down to you, their customer. Resulting in a higher monthly bill for you.
The second way it can greatly impact you is that the ISP's can choose which media providers you have access to and which ones they will restrict, this would be the broken down car in the earlier example. According to the Internet Association, 87% of rural Americans have one or no choice for high-speed internet.
By the ISP's doing this, you are only getting to see some of the information and media services available on the internet. This ultimately means, they are selecting which information and services you have access to. To help emphasize this impact, Worth Hiding, a digital news source, emphasized last year, ...freedom of navigation is fundamental to the internet's 'and in the modern world, society's' well-being.
This is a direct violation of our constitutional right to freedom of speech and our ability to get it. As the Internet Association states, The internet creates unprecedented benefits for society, and is the voice of the world's leading internet companies.

(Transition: These are the reason why net neutrality should become a permanent law. )

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, understanding the connection between the media service providers and the internet service providers is critical to the consumer.
The ability of the larger media service providers to pay for faster access to their content by contracting with the ISP's, is not only going to impact you, the consumer, but will also inhibit the small media providers the ability to grow as their access will become slowed or blocked due to their lack of funds to pay for the higher packages with the ISP's.
Along with the concern of these costs being passed down to you, they are also deciding which information you will have access to.
As I stated before, this is impacting our constitutional rights to have and receive freedom of speech.
I hope you now agree and understand the reasons why we need to have a permanent law in place for net neutrality.

Works Cited

1. Finley, Klint. Net Neutrality: Here's Everything You Need To Know. Wired, Conde Nast, 30 Oct. 2018, www.wired.com/story/guide-net-neutrality/.
2. Journal, Wall Street. Net Neutrality Explained. YouTube, YouTube, 26 Feb. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=p90McT24Z6w.
3. Khachatrian, Harry. Everything You Need To Know About Why Net Neutrality Is A Terrible Idea. Daily Wire, The Daily Wire, 27 Nov. 2017, www.dailywire.com/news/24004/everything-you-need-know-about-why-net-neutrality-harRy-khachatrian.
4. McCain, Miles. Net Neutrality: the Facts, Statistics, and Rebuttals. Worth Hiding, Worth Hiding, 23 Nov. 2017, worthhiding.com/2017/11/23/net-neutrality-is-important-heres-why-facts-statistics-rebuttals/
5. NewsHour, PBS. What Is Net Neutrality? YouTube, YouTube, 1 Dec. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0X4Ogjg5MU.
6. Restoring Internet Freedom. Federal Communications Commission, 13 June 2018, www.fcc.gov/restoring-internet-freedom.

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