Net Neutrality

Details: Created on Wednesday, 12 November 2014 14:32; Written by Cassandra Bernier

NORTHEAST KINGDOM- The Fedral Communications Commission, better known as the FCC, is considering new rules that will permit Internet service providers to offer content providers a faster track to send content.

But President Obama, along with many others, want to keep the internet open access. Net neutrality, which is in place now, allows Internet service providers to treat all data equally.

By keeping the internet open, Internet service providers can not discriminate websites by user, content, site, platform or application. But if the internet becomes "closed," Internet service providers can change the speeds of data, due to the amount of money that each website pays.

If a website pays more money than another website, the website that pays more will have their data be recevied at higher speeds.

Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Patrick Leahy both support President Obama, they do not want the FCC to limit access to users.

Senator Sanders wrote a letter to Thomas Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Comminications Commission, saying, "As you know, President Barack Obama has made a strong statement on net neutrality and the importance of preserving a free and open internet. I strongly agree with him and so do the American people. You may recall that my office shared with the Commission more than 40,000 comments submitted to us opposing your proposal to allow for-pay fast lanes on the Internet. Many of those comments were extremely thoughtful and made clear that ending net neutrality would be a disaster for our country, for small businesses and for the free flow of ideas."

Back in April, Senator Sanders also issued a statement saying, "Under this terribly misguided proposal, the internet as we have come to know it would cease to exist and the average American would be the big loser. We must not let private corporations turn bigger and bigger profits by putting a price tag on the free flow of ideas."

If the FCC goes through with their proposal, they can limit access to sites that have illegal things on them, or something that they don't like. The American people would not be able to access what they want, when they want to. Or at least not at normal high access speeds that they can access sites on now.

President Obama has said, "In plain english I'm asking them to recognize that for most Americans, the internet has become an essentail part of every day communications and every day life."

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has said that he is not going to cave to pressure from the White House. Many U.S. Republicans are also against net neutrality, calling it Obamacare of the Internet.