The internet we all know and love may be about to change forever. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving last week,
news broke that Federal Communications Commission chairmain Ajit Pai released a plan to repeal the net neutrality rules put in place by the Obama administration.
Net neutrality rules prohibit internet service providers, like Verizon and AT&T, from slowing down the delivery of certain sites or charging customers a premium for access to specific websites.
“Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the internet,” Pai said in a statement. “Instead, the F.C.C. would simply require internet service providers to be transparent about their practices so that consumers can buy the service plan that’s best for them.”
The plan is expected to be approved in a meeting on Dec. 14, as Pai is believed to have a 3-2 vote in his favor. If approved, ISPs could begin bundling the internet in the same way they do cable packages.
"Of course, ISPs say they will do no such thing, and some experts say it's unlikely that they would do so given the risk of antagonizing consumers,"
writes Forbes' Steven Salzberg. "More likely, they say, is a shift toward plans where content providers favored by the ISP are given preferential treatment."
The former commissioner of the FCC, Michael Copps, is staunchly agains Pai's proposal.
"There can be no truly open internet without net neutrality,” Copps told The Nation. “To believe otherwise is to be captive to special interest power brokers or to an old and discredited ideology that thinks monopoly and not government oversight best serves the nation. In this case, I think it’s both. The FCC under Pai is handing over the internet to a few humongous gatekeepers who see the rest of us as products to be delivered to advertisers, not as citizens needing communications that serve democracy’s needs"