By Anita Bielicka
This year marks some of the most intense discussion related to our favourite invention, the internet: First we were baffled at the gross violation of privacy committed by some parts of our very own governments, feared for our online accounts due to a major hacking attack around the world, and now also fear for the loss of net neutrality. But was is net neutrality, and why is it so crucial that we preserve it?
Net neutrality denotes the principle that neither governments nor internet service providers should encourage access of some data or discourage others, meaning that all data and all web pages on the internet should be equally accessible. If net neutrality is not ensured, internet providers would be able to charge data-intensive services more money, or otherwise slow down the connection. Some concerns have been expressed with regard to this, since it is possible for internet providers to block out potential competition.
While net neutrality has been legally ensured in some countries, such as Brazil, Chile, the Netherlands and Japan, the legal situation is somewhat ambiguous in others: Currently there is a major debate going on in the United States about whether net neutrality should be legally enforced, however the situation looks dire. In early 2014 the DC Circuit Court ruled that the Federal Communications Commission had no competence to enforce net neutrality for services that are not registered as common carriers. This means that websites such as Google, which are able to pay internet providers, will gain preferential access in the future, while other sites such as Reddit or Netflix will most likely be slowed down as a result.
At this point one could ask why we should care about US legislation, or lack thereof, here in Europe? The answer lies in the vague legal situation in the EU itself: Since the European Union has not made up its mind yet whether to update its five directives on electronic communication networks and services, it is still possible that the decision might go against net neutrality in the end, using the United States as a precedent – the only progress that has been made so far is the so called Telecoms Package from 2011, which requires internet providers to inform customers about possible discrimination.
In the end, it is our responsibility to openly campaign for what we want, in order to prevent others from making the decision for us and how we access arguably the most important service used today.
Anita Bielicka, Class of 2015, is a Law and Politics Major from Bremen, Germany.
