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Why You Should Care About Net Neutrality Today
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Most people don’t know what the term net neutrality means and don’t care.
But today is a good time as any to change that. Here is why you should care about net neutrality today: The Federal Communications Commission is set to release its Proposed Rules about the future of the Open Internet today.
Wait does that mean that the government will censor the Internet? No. At stake is how fast and easy the stuff you consume on the Internet - cat videos, blogs, games and tweets travel across the Internet to your house.
Right now, all content whether its a “Downton Abbey” video or Candy Crush game has to wait its turn on the Internet Service Provider line to be delivered to its destination - your computer. All traffic is treated equally.
Some content providers like Netflix want to zip past the regular line and pay Internet Service Providers like Comcast and AT&T Uverse extra for a dedicated traffic lane in order to get to consumers faster.
Perhaps this makes sense to those Netflix fans who’ll get a smooth, fast and uninterrupted connection. But they may not be happy once they find out their bills have gone up to account for these private traffic lanes.
Also what about the amateur producers who stream their shows on their blogs? They would be out of luck since they don’t have the money to pay.
While the FCC isn’t technically in charge of regulating the Internet, a D.C. Court of Appeals has pushed the commission into doing so. In January, the court struck down rules the FCC created to maintain net neutrality, writing that the group didn’t have the authority to do so.
It says the FCC needs to rewrite the rules - which brings us to today’s upcoming revisions release.
We will have to wait to see what the FCC says. But now you know why should care today in particular.
Check out this article from Mashable: FCC and Net Neutrality: What You need to Know Before Today’s Big Meeting for some more specifics.