On July 12th, millions stood in solidarity for the National Net Neutrality day of action to keep the internet open market for all. The push back on nationwide net neutrality has been a battle for decades, but has been recently reignited by Trump administration FCC chairman Ajit Pai, whom of which is using his efforts to revamp and dissect current open market internet standards and give ISP’s the control of preference.

Play Your Way Network has all you need to know in regards to the battle against open internet for all, and how it can affect you.

(and heck, even this podcast/blog )

What is Net Neutrality? 

Net Neutrality is based off the principle of free and equal range of  voice, speech, and services for all users, companies and corporations. No one person/entity has a more designated right or preference over the internet than the next at this point, and it cannot be interfered with on the grounds of preference. Net neutrality is currently the FCC standard  because of it, we are entitled to browse and access content online regulation free and without prejudice of provider.

Who are the Antagonists?

Title II is currently still active, however, lobbyists of cable and internet service providers are instrumental in this attack of open range internet. And per usual their If it is ditched, ISP’s can expect to make crazy profits from their preference based pricing and distinctive content blocking and restrictions. Appropriately enough,  those that vote for the derailment of the current bill are likely influenced by lobbyists for marginal lacing of their own pockets but that’s a political conversation for another day.

What does changing Title II terms to “voluntary” restrict or limit?

• Speed of service to an individual site or application .
• Access of information to customer or services to others based on monetary priority.
• Blocking of content that may compete with the original ISP.
• Making particular internet packages low – high tier based on what sites or applications are being used. (i.e, low tier being blogs, personal sites, news pages and high tier being large platforms like Facebook, Netflix, Amazon, ect).
• Those with web based content/ applications must pay more to make their content accessible on the web. (Unlike search engine optimization, or SEO,  this is a complete separation or tethering of content access instead of paying a host more for a better placement when searching).

Lets not only take this as a threat to big business. Particularly, to us fellow nerds and gaming/anime aficionados, this is a pretty big deal. This would result in higher internet prices for content that is already fair and balanced to everyone despite the service mediums and sites/pages accessed, not to mention the content is subject to be limited at will.

How would you feel if an internet provider partnered with Marvel, and made all of its movie and TV content only stream-able from their ISP? It would force all others who want to watch Luke Cage or The Avengers to sign up with their package or be without the experience.

Even within the same participating ISP, the amount you would pay for streaming services and high priority sites would likely be more in comparison for basic internet browsing for web pages, news blogs and less active content.

Sounds horribly limiting, right? 

Whats the next step?

As of now, the push to fight against Title II and add “voluntary” key conditions to preference rights of online use is currently being moved forward as of May 18th, 2017, but is still being aggressively fought. There are several sites such as battleforthenet.com that you can sign up to support net neutrality as well as sending Congress and the FCC some words in solidarity.

In the meantime, stay woke and Viva la Interwebs!