The day of reckoning has come, unfortunately.

Despite the strong opposition against the repeal of the Obama administration backed Net Neutrality regulations and protections, the fight to keep Net Neutrality has been lost, as the bill was passed 3 to 2 in a vote along party lines. At this point, all means of stopping the repeal are slim to none at this point. Ajit Pai, the Trump appointed FCC chairman has been relentless in his efforts to push away Net Neutrality, citing that will bring the internet back to the golden days such as the early 2000’s.

I guess Ajit doesn’t understand the contradictory notion of that statement backed with opposing actions…

Nevertheless, there will likely be lawsuits, appeals and other legal actions put in place, but for now it seems as if we can expect these changes to come into fruition soon. Open access internet regardless of content affects much more than just our social media accounts and internet streaming of video content; its also start up companies and businesses that depend on the internet for its growth and marketable development.

Heck, this even affects our awesome podcast and network- Definitely not THE PLAYER WAY!

What you can expect with its repeal:

• Prioritized media based on ISP relationship with individual companies or their competition. 
  • Breakdown: If your ISP is Verizon but favors Netflix over Hulu, Hulu users may access the application but at throttled speeds in comparison to that of a partnered company.
• Internet Service Packages set up on content based mediums, limiting the type of content you can reach by a plan, similar to cable companies
  • What this means: With a basic internet package, you may just be limited to only blog sites, news, job boards and non social media type web pages. Anything else could require a higher tier internet package.
    • This also limits the audience of people that can reach internet content, which will put a dent in small businesses, which would have to pay higher premiums to make their information more easily available to more audiences
• Your ISP controls what you see, even if it isn’t directly harmful:
  • ISP’s can control your website access and can deem if it is appropriate if it conflicts with their business or partners. For example, someone protesting against AT&T regarding bad business practices may get their content blocked if they try to create content on an AT&T ISP, or if created on another ISP, it can be make open on all but AT&T’s internet service if they see it as a threat to business, further politicizing the internet.

Since the repeal’s 3 to 2 vote, Washington has begun to enforce its own statewide version of Net Neutrality. Gov. Jay Inslee states:

“There are some things worth fighting for. This is a free-speech issue as well as a business development issue.”

This step by Governer Inslee is hopefully the first step of progress that will hopefully encourage other statess to enlist the same internet protections.

Want to get involved? Go to BattlefortheNet.com and send a letter to Congress.