Net Neutrality Isn't Just A "US Problem": Here's Why India & The World Needs To Be Very Worried
If the FCC successfully repeals net neutrality laws, India is probably going to follow suit.
The US Federal Communications Commission is currently embroiled in a massive debate with the general public. Well, as much of a debate as it can be when one side sticks their fingers in their ears and go "la la la, I can¡¯t hear you."
The FCC, led by chairman Ajit Pai, is looking to tear down Net Neutrality laws put into place by the Obama administration in 2015. Those laws are the only thing preventing US telecom giants like Comcast and Verizon from gating and biasing network speeds for certain websites, and basically serving you whatever they feel like. Or charging you money for preferential access. This goes against the very ethos of what the Internet should be -- free, fair and open for all.
Ok hold up, just what does ¡°Net Neutrality¡± mean anyway?
Let¡¯s break it down a little further. Doing away with net neutrality allows telecom companies to serve up Internet like they would cable connections. Imagine opening up Netflix, in your browser, except instead of the webpage you get a message saying, ¡°Sorry, you don¡¯t have the Entertainment package active. Please pay $5 to purchase and activate the package now.¡± The same thing for YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Hotstar. Getting the picture now? Well, it gets worse.
That¡¯s just an example of how these companies can over charge you. But how a different scenario. What if all of those websites fell under the special Entertainment package, but Hotstar was provided in your basic connection. You¡¯re more likely to watch it right? And what if you bought that package, but all those websites seem to buffer a lot slower on your net connection that Hotstar? Again, you¡¯re more likely to stick to the website that works, correct? That, in essence, is the bigger worry when considering doing away with Net Neutrality.
Basically, the telecom company that provides your Internet connection, without these laws in place preventing them, could do all of those things ¨C charge you more to visit certain websites, slow down traffic being routed to them, or even block them entirely. In this way, the companies are actually impinging on people¡¯s freedom to access the web as it is now, a beautiful and immense network connect you to anything and anyone across the world. More importantly, controlling what websites you visit also lets telecom companies control the information you get. That way, they can also influence what you think, because you just don¡¯t have the information to know better.
Blame this guy
In the US, net neutrality laws are even more crucial. That¡¯s because only major telecom companies are allowed to provide connections; there are no small-scale cable operators to provide the service, like we have here in India. And in some places in the US, people just have access to the one company¡¯s services. With no net neutrality, and no competition from another service, the guys with the keys to the Internet can do whatever they like and people would have to submit or not access the Internet at all. Leave aside how you¡¯d get your entertainment, can you even imagine being able to do your job, find work, keep in touch with friends and family, or pretty much anything without the Internet?
That¡¯s why the general public, and even a few major companies, are coming out against the FCC¡¯s proposal. Net neutrality advocates organised a ¡°Day of Action to Save Net Neutrality¡± back in July, and they¡¯ve got more protests lined up, including one during the massive holiday celebration that is Thanksgiving. However, the FCC has pretty much said it doesn¡¯t care what the public thinks, instead lending its ear to Republican politicians, and the ISPs that would stand to gain from repealing the laws. The thing is, this isn¡¯t just a United States problem. It¡¯s an everyone problem.
What does everyone else think?
The United States has dubbed itself the ¡°leader of the free world¡± for a reason. A lot of countries still look to them for precedent when dealing with complex real-world issues. Of course, more modern countries like France and Germany don¡¯t number among those. These countries are all well developed, have heavy anti-corruption laws, and have already dealt with issues the likes of Net Neutrality enough to have formed their own national opinion and judicial precedence.
Chile was in fact the first to bring the concept of net neutrality into law, way back in 2010. The Netherlands was the first European country to follow suit in 2012. The European Union actually once set a framework of laws to govern net neutrality, but it¡¯s been criticised for having too many loopholes. Only a few countries like Slovenia and Netherlands have gone further to strengthen their laws even more.
India and other developing nations need to keep vigilant
Unfortunately, it¡¯s not the same for us here in India. Like other developing nations, we¡¯ve been cemented in the mindset that the United States is a country so far away from us in both distance and socio-cultural progress that they¡¯re likely more experienced with these sorts of issues. Sure, we¡¯ll shake our heads whenever we hear about teen pregnancies and gun violence, but we¡¯re more than happy to consider them the experts about the Internet. After all, it¡¯s pretty much where the web originated, not to mention the home of Internet giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Clearly they have a better grasp of the variables involved right?
Without net neutrality these companies can decide where you can and can't go online
Brazil still struggles with interpretations of its net neutrality laws, to the point where WhatsApp was once blocked in the country based on the legal understanding of it, before later being allowed once more. South Africa meanwhile has no net neutrality laws to date. A white paper commissioned on the topic is now two years behind its publishing date.
Even in India, Facebook has already attempted to launched services that Internet freedom with with its Internet.org campaign. Thankfully, TRAI eventually kicked the service out of the country, and subsequently banned the practice. And this was after the public had already risen up to protest Airtel Zero.
So how did that happen when India has no net neutrality laws in place? Well, TRAI looked to the standards in place in the US at the time. Since we had no precedence, we took it from a more developed country. And now that Ajit Pai and the FCC are ready to crumple that standard and burn it, the question is whether India¡¯s public have learned enough about the issue to help lawmakers set our own precedent. Because if not, we may just see our politicians pushing to once again follow the American flow, with companies like Reliance, Airtel, and Vodafone able to exert more control on how we access the Internet.