Steve Smith talks about the importance of Net Neutrality and how losing it, will create yet another environment for Class Discrimination.
Episode #7-24 released on February 11, 2017
Net Neutrality, a term coined in 2003 by Columbia University media law professor Tim Wu, is a reference to the idea of the common carrier that refers to telephone services back in the day. It is currently required by all ISPs in countries that have adopted the notion of net neutrality, to treat all data going through their services as being of the same value, with no blocking, or prioritizing of any data packets that may favor one service over another, what some call internet fast lanes.
Why is Net Neutrality Important?
Net Neutrality, embodies the idea of the dumb pipe connecting to the open Internet, where your ISP is only responsible for connecting you to a vast amount of resources that have identical prioritization, with no form of traffic shaping techniques to change the prioritization of packets going and coming from servers and your devices. Without this protection, your ISP and those of services you use and love, would have to pay extra tariffs just so you can access them in any meaningful way.
Therefore, Net Neutrality is important.
If Net Neutrality disappears, even in one country, what can one expect?
The idea of the ISP being a dumb pipe goes out the window, as traffic shaping and packet prioritization will become the new norm as the creation of Internet Fast Lanes will be applied only to packets from services that paid more for such services. Various packets will be blocked, or slowed down to a crawl, and that is just starters. You can expect the Internet to start slowing down in favor of services who pay more. The speed to content, and range of content you have access to will change dramatically. Competition will disappear as smaller entities will not be able to compete or innovate in such markets, prices will rise for Internet services, and that is just for starters.
It comes down to this, the content and services you are used to getting can be slowed down by various ISPs trying to make extra money on services they don't create, block some kinds of services, slow down content, or speed somethings up. In all cases, the bigger get bigger, and the small guy or girl, never gets a chance to innovate, ever again.
It is as its core, the digital form of treating everything equal without discrimination, and allowing for Net Neutrality to disappear, is tantamount to digital prejudice based on financial standing, or more commonly called, Class Discrimination.
Host : Steve Smith | Music : | Editor : Steve Smith | Producer : Zed Axis Dot Net