Imagine yourself shopping in Squamish, wandering down Cleveland Avenue window shopping, when suddenly a security guard walks up and physically prevents you from coming anywhere near a particular row of shops.
“Sorry, you need to pay the more expensive ‘Elite’ Squamish Shopping Rate to be able to go into those stores,” he says sternly.
Since you only subscribe to the normal monthly fee to shop in town, you’re out of luck, and will never even know what was in those stores.
That sounds like a pretty odd scenario, right, however if the United States gets its way with abolishing “net neutrality” that is exactly how the internet will start to work.
Net neutrality, according to the handy Wikipedia description, is the principle that internet service providers must treat all data on the internet the same, and not discriminate or charge differently by user, content, website, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or method of communication.
That principle, which has withstood previous dismantling attempts in the past, is really in danger now.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Ajit Pai, who formerly worked at Verizon Communications (a telecommunications company) is holding a vote on the fate of net neutrality for that country on Dec. 14, and the results could affect how you, your Squamish neighbours, and all Canadians use the internet.
If the U.S. government gets its way, internet in that country is going to start to resemble how cable TV packages currently work, except instead of sports or movie channel packages, you’ll see things like social media or news content packages. No longer will people be able to see the whole internet, but rather different levels depending on how much you pay. Internet providers will be able to pick and choose what people see online, and charge more for, or discriminate against certain content.
Here in Canada, our net neutrality laws are similar to those in the U.S., meaning we currently have access to the whole internet, regardless of the content. However, if the U.S. repeals or alters their net neutrality policies, costs for some of our favourite online content could conceivably go up. For example, without net neutrality in the U.S., a company like Netflix may have to fork out extra cash to ensure its content is in the new internet’s “fast lane.” And, who do you think in the end will foot the bill for that increase? Of course, it will be consumers. So, immediately a repeal of net neutrality in the U.S. would mean increased fees for content Canadians currently enjoy. Another possible impact would be telecom companies lobbying our government to do the same thing (and Bell has already forwarded some proposals for just that scenario), paving the way for multi-tiered internet access where only those with enough cash can see the whole online world.
It’s a move that only benefits telecom companies who are trying to make up for dwindling cable TV revenues, and, it’s dangerous, because when people are only exposed to certain things on the internet, it shapes how people think, and the overall discourse, because we’ll only be seeing bits and pieces instead of the whole picture. It’s censorship, based on how much you can afford.
The good news is most tech companies and luminaries are against repealing net neutrality, and have strongly voiced their concerns ahead of the Dec. 14 vote. It remains to be seen what will happen in the end, but you can do your part (for Canada, anyway) and let your government representatives know you want our country to keep its internet neutral.
