There’s no rational reason I can find that supports the practice of charging producers to make sure their content is delivered to consumers. Yet that is exactly what Internet Service Providers (ISPs) want to do. In fact, the practice is legal. The major ISPs can and have been shown to be doing that to content sources like Netflix. Now the FCC is looking to review the practice and potentially make it illegal.
It’s a hot button issue that’s so controversial that the FCC’s proposed rule changes have received over 1 million comments (1,067,779).
Net neutrality proponents argue that the ISPs can’t charge for data transfer rates that the consumers have already paid for. The ISPs argue that they aren’t denying those users the rates they have paid for, instead, they are merely offering the providers a means of ensuring better delivery of their content.
There have been a number of articles dispelling the ISPs’ mythical argument. The most famous of which may be John Oliver’s 13-minute takedown.
Comments are now closed on the proposed rule changes. Now the question comes, what will Tom Wheeler do? Will he be able to step away from corporate influence and serve consumers?
Joshua is a writer and researcher with Ring of Fire. You can follow him on Twitter @Joshual33.
