Net Neutrality In Internet Research

Thor Benson, an author and journalist, once said while talking about net-neutrality that there is no free expression when people have to pay to stand on the soapbox. For years, the internet has been an international gathering place where people with controversial ideas are free to speak their minds, and communities have been created around every topic. The average user is able to use their available bandwidth to do what they like, be it using Facebook, or watching videos on YouTube. Recently, however, internet service providers have been looking to gain money and power by limiting access to the internet, allowing instead for companies to pay for an elevated amount of connectivity. The result of this is the idea of net-neutrality, or an equality
Whenever any major events happen, the first way many people of the younger generations find out is through a link or post on a website. When service providers can limit traffic and content, however, this interconnectivity of nations will be broken. According to Emma Cano in “Saving the Internet: Why Regulating Broadband Providers Can Keep the Internet Open,” published in the Brigham Young University Law Review, when ISPs are allowed to place their own restrictions on content and applications, it will break down the aspects of the Internet that help encourage this interconnectivity and sharing of information (723). Recently, it has been found that ISPs are using JavaScript, a tool that is commonly used for video displays, to inject code directly onto the user’s computer and display ads. Combining this with the monitoring of user’s browsing, this could create a way for ISPs to decide what content the user sees. Instead of important news stories or other useful content, ISPs could instead choose to show advertisements or to not even allow the content to be viewed at all. The lack of regulation would allow for these circumstances to occur, and if they were to entire nations could potentially be cut off from the rest of the world in terms of relevancy of
When this network is at risk of being controlled by ISPs instead of being able to develop on its own, the usefulness of the service declines greatly. Without regulation, many of the technologies and ideas that could be developed off of the internet might never be made. The world would lose a way for communities to be connected, the ability to share news and information immediately, and the people who pay for this service would have to make a compromise in their budgets due to raised