Net Neutrality

I didn't know network neutrality was an issue until I learnt about it in mass communications. I then soon realized that this is a reality that could be coming soon, and it won't be accepted kindly by the public.Net neutrality is the concept to prevent centralized control over the future of our internet.(Wu)

This also means that all users of the internet are to be treated the same way. And that packets are delivered on a first-come, first-served basis regardless from where they originated or to where they are destined.(“PC Mag”) The problem now is that the internet companies want to change this. They want to make it so they can direct you to the sites that they want you to go to. They will “carve off bandwidth for their own services...to charge selected companies a toll for "priority" service” (Wu) This means that they will take us to the sites that have payed the service provider money to make sure that their customers will use this site over another site of the same intent. As a user I feel that this is wrong and we should keep the net neutral! What's the point of being connected to the web if you have to keep wondering if your allowed to go onto a certain site, or if your service provider is going to prevent you from going to the current site your on in the future. As a user i agree with Wu in saying that “what must be banned are blocking, gratuitous discrimination, and choosing favorites.”(Wu).

We know that the only reason the websites are doing this is due to money, and the greed that our service providers have. It all brings it back to hegemonies. They want the power in their hands to control and the companies who are paying them to control their users. They are becoming “horizontally integrated; that is, they control a significant slice of specific media sector” (Mc Chensney). The companies that would be paying the internet companies are trying to get their slice of the internet media sector. A lot of these compaines who will be paying those internet companies are “major media companies [are] [moving] aggressively to become global players”(Mc Chensney). And now just like everything else is our world, the internet will become a “global media system [that] is intricately intertwined with that of global capitalism” (Mc Chensney)

Work Cited

McChesney, Robert. "The New Global Media." Nation 11 Nov 1999, Print.

" Net neutrality ." PC Mag . Ziff Davis Media International, Web. 11 Nov 2009. .

Wu, Tim. "Why You Should Care About Network Neutrality." Slate 1 May 2006: n. pag. Web. 11 Nov 2009. <http://www.slate.com/id/2140850/>.