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Net neutrality: Does it matter?
Human beings everywhere enjoy the basic freedoms of association, speech, and acc
ess to information. Even those countries with drawbacks on these freedoms still
crave for them. It is man s nature to socialize, to converse, and to be in the know.
The term net neutrality seems too far-fetched to relate to these freedoms. Howe
ver, the question of the importance of net neutrality is one of a simple answer.
Yes, net neutrality is necessary for all of us.
Net neutrality is the principle of equality in net serving. The concept affects
all broadband providers (the ISPs) to enable customer access to all contents and
applications regardless of the make, the source, or the specific customer prefe
rence without favoring particular websites (Campbell et al. 570). You might thin
k that since the internet is such an essential requirement, this principle is al
ready in place. However, this is not the case. The concept is basic but yet so c
omplicated as it is mingled in between the technical Internet architecture that
is today and the complex principles of administrative law.
To decide on its importance, one needs to analyze the effects of foregoing the p
rinciple. Today, many broadbands have emerged in the internet scenes. For instan
ce, the giants Netflix and Facebook that have the world s attention. The latter has
taken the world by a storm with its access to free calls and face time. Facebook
generates a sizeable amount of traffic with its videos and other large files. I
f today net neutrality were denied, perhaps Facebook would not be free. Mark Zuc
kerberg and his team would be forced to pay extra for the traffic. Since the com
pany cannot run on losses, the clients would have to pay for their access to Fac
ebook either by added ads or monthly subscriptions. Some of Facebook customers m
ay not afford the subscription. The outcome will be a digital divide between the
well offs and the rest (Campbell et al. 69). In itself, this is a denial of the
freedom of speech for both of these groups of people. The conversation chain wi
ll be broken and thus speech denied.
Not only will the clients face retrenched freedoms of speech, association, an
d access to information, they will also suffer manipulation from the ISPs. For o
ne, internet charges will skyrocket. The ISPs will have freedom to block, thrott
le, and prioritize web servers at will. Netflix being a large consumer of networ
k space will be badly hit. It will be expected to pay more to receive the space.
Failure to which the ISPs might slow the access to Netflix. Therefore, the cons
umers will have to cater for this. Those that cannot afford the internet at its
right speed may find themselves with slow Netflix movies in future should we not
apply net neutrality today.
Any negation from net neutrality will affect the client negatively. The principl
e seeks to advocate for the safe network access for customers. Therefore, Net ne
utrality relates to mass ownership and the recent overturning of the FCC s broadband
privacy rules through consumer protection. The FCC employs the principle by est
ablishing the rules that give the client choice, transparency, and security for
their personal data under the FCC rules (Federal Communications Commission 1). M
oreover, net neutrality allocates some power to the client and thus regulates th
e tyranny of the giants of mass ownership.

Works cited
Campbell, Richard et al. Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communicatio
n. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin s, 2013. Print.
Federal Communications Commission. FCC Adopts Privacy Rules to give Broadband Co
nsumers increased choice, transparency and security for their personal data. Was
hington: Office of the Federal Communications Commission. https://apps.fcc.gov/e
docs_public/attachmatch/DOC-341937A1.pdf. 29 April 2017.