An Open Internet.... if you can keep it | Eastern North Carolina Now

Yes that title was a Benjamin Franklin reference for my personal amusement.

    After a decade of political debate, Open Internet Rules have finally been established by the FCC. Net neutrality, also known as Open Internet, is the concept that internet users should not have restrictions or limitations on what online content they access set by the Internet Service Provider (ISP.) You can read more about this here.

    This year has been the year of highest conflict in the debate because people finally started talking, and as politicians do, they act like a group of high school students and go against anything the person they oppose approves of without actually looking at the facts... This ruling is not an internet tax or a step towards an internet tax as many incompetent "news"-casters will mislead you to believe, it is nothing more than ensuring equal access to online resources. Yes this is a problem.


    Some (I mean almost all) ISPs were slowing down access to certain sites that have competing services. For example, most ISPs are also cable companies so they would block Netflix, because they are competitors. You're paying for that broadband internet package, but your ISP is lowering your speed to keep you from canceling your cable plan. This was happening, but now it is illegal.

    I'm sure that despite this rule now being put into law (as of June 12, 2015), some ISPs will continue to engage in these practices, but now we will have a rule in place specifically outlawing it.

    Please don't be ignorant, instead form your own opinion based on facts, thanks.