The World Ended December 14, 2017: Net Neutrality

There was an utter melt-down on the internet yesterday when the FCC voted 3-2 to repeal the so-called Net Neutrality (NN) policies. CNN proclaimed that the internet as we know it is over (and interestingly enough, that’s exactly what Bernie Sanders said too...coincidence…?).

How big of a deal is it?

This is an extremely complicated issue (believe me, I’ve been reading/researching on it for the last 2 days and it still makes my head hurt). There are excellent points on both sides.

Being of the small government persuasion, I tend toward favoring any reduction in government regulation. However, the calls for caution from many who are “in the know” regarding this issue, gives me significant pause.

So who do we believe? I have still not come to a concrete position in my own mind, so I can’t tell you how to think. What I can tell you though is that to the best of my knowledge, the internet operated without any kind of NN policies until 2015. For those of you who find math difficult, that was about 2 years ago.

Prior to 2015, NN was not in place and things seemed to move along just fine. That’s not to say that NN is utterly wrong, however, just something to help put this issue into perspective.

How will it affect my life?

But when we boil it all down, the real question is - how will this affect my life? According to many, this is the biggest deal ever and we’ll soon be paying out the nose for the pleasure of using sites like Twitter and Facebook. According to others, nothing will change in our internet experience.

The pro-NN crowd say that NN protects you from throttling, potential blocking, & prioritizing of traffic (paid fast lanes). Those all sound like bad things, and are definitely not what I want in my internet experience.

On the other side, the anti-NN say that companies always have their own best interest at heart. And their best interest is directly tied to how much their customers want/like their service. Therefore, a company that throttles, blocks & prioritizes will potentially lose customers because that’s not what customers want. The argument is that the free market will work as it always does - getting rid of businesses that don’t offer what customers want, and causing businesses that listen to customers needs/wants to flourish.

At the center of this debate is whether the internet is classified as a utility (pro-NN) or an information service (anti-NN). A utility is something that people have a limited right to access. Utilities are also heavily regulated by the government (water, electricity, sewer, etc.). An information service is less regulated and more autonomy is left to the private businesses in how they provide their services.

Impactful Government

It seems that everything these days is a political issue. And that’s a problem.

How much do you honestly think a 76 year old socialist like Bernie Sanders knows about NN?

Public servants in government were never meant to be experts in everything. It’s impossible! Yet these days, they’d have to be to actually pass sensible laws. Why? Because we have a government that impacts every area of our life.

This impractical situation is blatantly ridiculous. Thankfully though, the FCC board is made up of five commissioners appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms. The President designates one of the commissioners to serve as chairman.

This board is the entity making the decision regarding NN, not Congress. This doesn’t mean they will always make, or in this case did make, the right decision. However, it’s at least somewhat comforting that it’s not septuagenarians like Bernie creating laws about the internet...yet.

If government will focus on its Constitutionally delegated responsibilities, we’ll have much better laws coming out of D.C. and a government that’s fulfilling its proper role.

Does that include NN?

I’ll get back to you on that one. In the meantime, I’ve got a 400 page PDF to read. Don’t wait up.

Jonathan Paine

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