The internet is a free space. With a mere Internet connection and a decent bandwidth, you can access all the content that is available on the internet. Whether it be a YouTube video of Charles Bukowski’s poem or a PDF file of Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone, there is no term or condition if you’re using the Internet legally. It’s all possible due to Net Neutrality—that internet is free and open for everyone. This suggests that the absence of Net Neutrality means the content you have an access on will be restricted and you may have to pay some extra money apart from the money you are paying to the Internet provider.
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Understanding Net Neutrality And Its Impact
There Is More To It
It’s not something anew that the Internet traffic has been increasing at an unexpected rate. According to the statistics, more than half of the Internet traffic goes to YouTube, Netflix and other video streaming sites. With Facebook being used both for social media and business, the numbers are only increasing. With that happening, the need to manage the traffic is not going any down.
Therefore, the cost of connection management—the tools and the infrastructure—will also increase. But with the net neutrality, there’ll be a return on investment crisis and mismanagement. This also doesn’t mean we need to monetize the content for that.
To solve the aforementioned problem, we need few things to be implemented: there should be a check on the streaming of unlawful content whether it be any form and there should be taxation on the companies that are providing with the alternatives. Like an online phone call is delegating the traditional phone calls—so they should also be taxed like the latter—and that too in the moderate amount.
Importance Of ‘Balanced Net Neutrality’
The freedom to create and access content and services on the internet gives birth to innovations and breaks the monotony. With the power of creation and entrepreneurship, even the leading service providers can be can be challenged with robust ideas—leading to a diverse smooth digital ecosystem.
Moreover, the importance of balancing the above process—discussed above—shouldn’t also be sidelined. While the censorship shouldn’t be imposed baselessly, there should be some boundaries for the secure and modest Internet world.
Conclusion:
When you raise one side of a stick, the other also rises. While Net Neutrality will put a full stop on the unwanted obligations and unfair censorship, the network manager will need more funds to manage the traffic. Therefore, there should be a control on the unlawful and arousing content—like Child abuse—and at the same, large service providers should be prevented from creating the monopoly.
