Protecting Internet Freedom and Neutrality

In the year 1969, the US government introduced the ARPANET which connected four western universities with the sole aim of creating a communications network that is immune to a nuclear attack. As years passed by, more nodes were added and on the year 1994, there will already about 4 million nodes that were interconnected. Other important features were also added such as file transfer, email and HTML. What started out as a cold war project eventually becomes the communications technology of the modern era.

The success and popularity of the internet was solely attributed to its neutrality. Every living person in this world is free to use the internet whether for personal, educational or business purposes. That freedom is being threatened by opportunists and other capitalists. In recent events, several companies have conducted lobbying tasks in order to persuade federal policymakers unto restructuring the internet. Their aim is to lessen or totally eliminate the openness of the internet so that phone and cable companies may impose a pay-per-use scheme.

Several popular and rich companies such as Google, Verizon and AT&T have been nearing a consensus for an agreement that will redefine how an individual can access the internet and online information. If this agreement will be pushed through, internet transmission shall be limited only to companies who can pay for defined bills. Online information will be controlled and will only favor those large and rich companies. There will be a new method which will give prioritization on who takes control of online information and who gets to access the internet the most.

Did you know that Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites are all in the danger of collapse and extinction? It is because of internet freedom that his cool and useful sites were created after all. With a controlled structure of the internet, AT&T may impose its video and other social media services which of course may not come for free. We are nearing an age where a person may need to pay a subscription fee in order so simply subscribe to a social media site or watch a video online.

The future of the internet technology lies on the federal policymakers who are the ones responsible for protecting the rights of every online user and decent flow of online information. They should realize how vital and beneficial the internet freedom is to every user. They should ignore those desperate lobbyists who only think of self-profit and gain. Federal policymakers should protect and preserve internet freedom against those abusive carriers.