"The internet has possibly been society’s biggest game changer. Without physical wires, people around the world can become connected instantly. Information can be spread faster than lightning and new pockets of the internet, with new purposes and effects, pop up every hour. The internet is often seen as something that needs restriction. Through the anonymity of a keyboard, people may be willing to get very nasty with one another where they would not in real life. There have been many calls for a crackdown on what can be said over electronic interfaces. There has also been controversy recently regarding Net Neutrality, the rule by which Internet Service Providers (ISPs) must treat all internet traffic equally across their networks. The ISPs …show more content…
In 2015, online purchases in the US totaled $350 billion and accounted for about a tenth of all retail purchases. As anyone could see, this is a rising trend and is only expected to continue rising into the electronics-rich future. Net Neutrality is so vital because of the need to protect small businesses. If Net Neutrality were not in play, ISPs could charge companies extra fees to be put in an internet “fast lane†where consumers could more easily visit their websites. For a big corporation, such as Netflix, Amazon, Google, etc., the fee is not actually that big a deal. However, if for small business owners, with modest means but a hopeful web presence, a fee to get decent bandwidth to your website could be cripplingly large. A model without Net Neutrality leaves the internet favoring large, well-established businesses, restricting the traffic, and thereby the purchases, to those who already have plenty of business. To be frank, the attempt to destroy Net Neutrality also represents a great degree of greed on the part of the ISPs, who seemingly wish to double dip in their business by charging for internet access on the end of the user and the website. Two of the largest internet providers, AT&T and Comcast are worth $249.3 billion and $193.5 billion, respectively. They are plenty large and profitable with Net Neutrality in place. In this sense, it is the government’s job, probably mostly at …show more content…
Once again, here the government finds that it should take some kind of action, but in defense of free speech this time. After the violent riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, many large online forums and domain hosts, including Google, Facebook, and GoDaddy made efforts to suppress white supremacists that could get attention on their platforms. The motive for the companies to suppress these radicals was clear: the white supremacists are very unpopular, and they wanted to disassociate with them. However, given how important the internet is to having a voice in the modern world, these companies must be considered, at least on issues like this, as a little less than fully private, independent companies. Google, on its own, has hold of 80% of the online search market. Quieting people on the internet for their unpopular opinion, even if done by a private company, is tantamount to repressing their free speech, and the government, once again at the federal level, should be responsible for checking these affronts to free speech. That is not to say that content on the internet is completely unrestricted. Things illegal outside of the internet, such as legitimate threats, inciting riots, or illegal media paraphernalia, should remain prohibited on the
When we think of those skilled in the art of rhetoric, we often jump to those we know are trying to convince us of something, like politicians, salesmen, lawyers, etc. We do not always consider corporate CEOs part of that group though Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, would have us believing another thing. On March 20th, 2014, Hastings published an article titled “Internet Tolls And The Case For Strong Net Neutrality” on Netflix’s official blog. Just under a month before the blog was posted, Netflix settled a deal paying Comcast, America’s largest cable and Internet service provider (ISP), for faster and more reliable service to Comcast’s subscribers (Cohen and Wyatt). These “internet tolls” go against the culture of net neutrality in America, which in its essence is when no piece of information is prioritized over another on broadband networks. Hastings took to their blog to advocate for net neutrality and against abusive ISPs. Whether he was conscious of his rhetorical finesse or not, he wrote quite convincingly thus turning this blog into an excellent rhetorical artifact. Reed Hastings’ blog post aims to convince American Internet consumers that strong net neutrality is important by appealing to their values of choice, frugality and empathy while simultaneously making ISPs seem ill intentioned and Netflix seem honorable.
Although the net neutrality debate didn’t come into the spot light so long ago, it has sparked controversy in the communications world. This concept provides a positive impact to the consumers, competition and network owners/internet service providers. It broadens the aspect of equality, which the open Internet was first based on. The profound effects on the aforementioned players provide a supported purpose to regulate the notion of net neutrality.
Net Neutrality requires to give everyone access to everything on the internet. This means that your internet provider won’t charge you for using specific websites. But with this, companies will have the ability to charge you for using basic things such as email, Spotify and even YouTube. Fast and slow lanes will also be included which may vary depending of what packages you paid for. But that is just the beginning, being that with this they will be able to control what you are able to see and not, ending Freedom of Speech in the
The internet is a place where people can freely express their political or other views for people to see. A recent study, Freedom of Net, by the activist group Freedom House shows both the immense censorship of information around the world and the declining freedom of information around the world, “Two-thirds of all internet users, 67 per cent, live in countries where criticism of the government, military, or ruling family are subject to censorship” (APF & Bell). The report by Freedom House digs into the censorship of government criticism, military criticism, and negative views on the ruling family in two thirds of countries studied in the report with governments around the world are silencing the voices of people and their publications. By censoring the people's voices, the governments are able to control the population and their views on not only their own government, but also countries around the world. Governments around the world are stepping up their censorship of public information posted on social media by taking actions to suppress the publications before they even begin. The report by Freedom House shares how police around the world are arresting and punishing those who have taken to social media to complain about a topic that makes the country look bad. The report states: “Social media users face unprecedented penalties, as authorities in 38 countries made
Net neutrality is essentially the freedom of internet users being able to access all networks and enjoy all web services. These services include applications, websites, content and platforms without any discrimination by the Internet Service Providers (Stiegler 2). The term also connotes that consumers should access all the legal information on the World Wide Web at an equal rate of speed. These ISPs include Comcast, Verizon, and AT &T Network. Disturbing net neutrality can have adverse access to internet users and businesses in various ways.
In this article, journalist Tali Arbel from the Associated Press explains the implications of the recent decision on Net Neutrality. In December, the FCC voted to overturn Net Neutrality, a set of laws dictating that all data on the internet must be treated equally by internet providers. Arbel goes on to say that without Net Neutrality protections, internet providers such as Verizon, Comcast, and the like will have the power to charge services like Amazon more for faster access to customers, as well as slow down or block content they disagree with. Arbel then lists the responses of the largest internet providers when asked whether they would consider using this new power. According to Arbel, “Three said they had ‘no plans’ for paid prioritization,
Net neutrality is the basic principle that “the government who is in charge should oblige all of the internet service providers to always and equally treat all the data that is being sent around the web and to not discriminate against any type of user or company. This means that internet service providers cannot block or slow down in any way websites or any online content.” (Gilroy 1). The main issue that will be talked about in this essay is the fact the
The creation of the internet has truly changed the world in drastic ways. However, his change is directly influenced by huge companies that provide data. Net neutrality is the principle that all internet data providers should treat data the same and not discriminate against a certain person, website or company. Under these rules, internet providers can’t block, censor, or slow down certain data. Recently though, many companies have been fighting the repeal of net neutrality. I believe that net neutrality is important for the stability of the internet and the companies that rely heavily on the internet to spread their ideas, products and information.
Net neutrality affects people worldwide because currently everyone can use it with the proper technology and internet provided. Businesses have access to the internet and use it for their benefit to gain a large amount of profit from it. The businesses usually show off their product to attract and persuade individuals to buy it, but in order for it to benefit them there has to be other people who can view it with no hassle. If people are being charged to use the internet, or the service is super slow, then that would result negativity towards the company.
Net Neutrality has been a rising topic of debate in recent months, and many people still have no idea what it is exactly. Net Neutrality is the idea that ISP’s- or Internet service providers, Should make it so people have access to all data on the internet without any discrimination or interference. That everyone should be created equal. There are supporters both for and against Net Neutrality. Those who support Net Neutrality are the common internet users.
A tactic that has been used by companies within the cable industry is to lower internet speeds when consumers stream services like Netflix in order to diminish their appeal. The government has been reviewing the creation of new regulations that would prohibit this practice. These net neutrality regulations would reclassify these providers from information service providers to utility providers. This reclassification would make it so that there are much stricter standards by which companies are required to provide access and would disallow the throttling of internet speeds. Perhaps the largest threat that is facing the cable industry is from nontraditional competition.
In the early days of the Internet, it is open to all of the people. The user of the Internet can obtain the net resource through pay some reasonable fee. It makes small companies can compete fairy with big companies. To explain it in simple, Net Neutrality is the way to ensure that all websites or videos can loaded in the same speed.
Eighty-seven percent of Americans use the internet today. This is a 187.1 percent increase from the year 2000. This is a number that has nearly tripled in size in just fifteen years. Americans use the internet for many reasons as well. We use various sites for entertainment including Netflix or Hulu for streaming movies and TV shows or Facebook or Twitter for social media.
Internet is a powerful tool that allows users to collaborate and interact with others all over the world conveniently and relatively safely. It has allowed education and trade to be accessed easily and quickly, but all these benefits do not come without very taxing costs. This is especially true when dealing with the likes of the Internet. Countries in the European Union and Asia have realized this and have taken action against the threat of net neutrality to protect their citizens, even at the cost of online privacy. Internet censorship is required to protect us from our opinions and vices. Every country should adopt Internet censorship and regulation since it improves society by reducing pornography, racism/prejudice, and online identity theft.
Free speech on the Internet is a very controversial subject and has been the key problem surrounding the Internet today. The attempt to regulate and govern the Internet is still pursued by government officials. This subject has been intensified due to terrorist attacks against the United States and around world within the past years. The government believes that by regulating the Internet, it will protect the general public from criminal actions and eliminate the exposure of children to pornography or vulgar language. Senator Jim Exon of ...