Network Neutralit serious threat to th

n 14 December, the three Republican representatives voted against the two Democrat representatives in favour of allowing the Internet Service Providers to discriminate between the content providers, favouring one instead of the other.

This decision has created a big debate as it changes the entire concept of how the Internet has always worked since its early days in the 1990s, and it will definitely give rise to innumerable court cases. As of this week, 21 early founders and promoters of the Internet have publicly denounced this measure.

Net Neutrality is a measure to prevent Internet Service Providers favouring one type of content from a determined source to the detriment of another content from a different source. Net Neutrality also guarantees that no Internet Service Provider can block any content based on commercial, political, religious or moral reasons without a court order.

Net Neutrality is good for the end users and small companies, as well as for the smaller countries which can compete with bigger ones on an equal footing. Net Neutrality is also good for competition and innovation. Small businesses with net neutrality do not have added startup costs to carry out business on the net. Start-ups, which could be seen as a threat to existing companies, cannot be blocked or forced to abort their business because of the high costs of getting on to the net. Net Neutrality is also beneficial to freedom of expression, democracy, yet we see various governments around the globe trying to block or regulate content. With the abolition of Net Neutrality, money takes over the Internet in an indiscriminate, free-for-all, manner.

President Obama legislated in favour of Net Neutrality about two years ago. As of 2016, the EU has legislation in all its member states that prevents Internet Service Providers from limiting discriminate access of content to the Internet. This Net Neutrality has allowed the birth of various platforms and