Internet Caste System: A Big Threat to Net Neutrality

Since the introduction of the first internet line, net neutrality has been around to promote freedom and equality in the internet. It defines a set of internet standards where one is free to generate internet content (music, video, radio, image, and data) and share it with thousands of other users worldwide. It promotes equal opportunity for all types of internet data in the usage of the internet highway regardless of its source. In effect, the internet grew rapidly and now has over 8 billion pages at its disposal.

Whenever we hear of the name “Google”, we often attribute it to the very popular search engine site that is the most used today. Google is indeed considered a major player (if not the most popular) in the internet market. The Google search engine is undoubtedly the most used search engine site today while YouTube is the most popular video-sharing website which is also owned by Google. Despite of its massive popularity, Google is now being criticized for its unethical stance with regards to internet freedom.

It has been rumored that Google and Verizon are now nearing an agreement that will change the way how websites are presented and seen in the internet. The deal allows Verizon to speed up the delivery of some online content to internet users provided that the owner of the site is willing to pay a priority fee. The effect of this deal is very crucial to website owners and content contributors as they will now have to pay before their works get decent exposure. Websites that do not subscribe to the priority list will get less exposure and slower delivery of its contents.

The actions of Google and Verizon are clearly directed to removing the existence of internet neutrality. Non-profit organizations and small businesses are the ones who will directly suffer from these actions as they are unable to afford the required subscription fees. Another aspect to consider is the hindrance to innovation. Facebook started out as a simple school project that eventually grew to become the most popular social networking tool today. If the deal is implemented, the progress of small but innovative start-up websites will be greatly halted.

Today, there has been widespread public outcry that ultimately condemns the Google-Verizon deal. The age of a free and just internet is put under greater risk. We might be seeing the establishment of an Internet Caste system where only the wealthy owners of website will dominate the online world. We all must call on Google to be responsible enough and preserve the freedom that internet users enjoyed for over 40 years. President Obama promised to protect net neutrality. Let us see now if he really keeps his promises.

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.