Layman Terms: Net Neutrality rules prevent “Internet Content Discrimination”

NEW YORK, NY – There are probably many people out there who hear about this Net Neutrality debate and do not know which way to lean on the issue, or they are simply not sure if they would be better off supporting it, or if they would be getting duped if they didn’t. I wanted to details some very simple examples of what the Internet would be like with no Net Neutrality, which we do have now. Without Net Neutrality, your Internet service would be much more ‘controlled‘ and you would learn and find only the information big cable companies wanted you to; a fundamental difference from what it is like now, where you just surf the net anywhere you want.

Your Internet Services and Experience WITH Net Neutrality:

• Your cable company, such as Comcast, cannot block you from visiting Skype (a voice-over-IP service) because they made a deal with Vonage, a competitor.
• AOL and Verizon cannot make Google run slower on your computer because they own Yahoo and would prefer you use that search engine instead.
• Your cable company, cannot filter out websites, they do not like or want you to see, simply because they do not agree with their views or opinions.
• Your cable company, cannot block YouTube, Netflix or Hulu in hopes to corner you into ordering better movie channel packages with them.
• Your cable company, cannot set your price for service based on what types of sites you visit or what type of content you use (information, social networks or video).

Your Internet Services and Experience WITHOUT Net Neutrality:

• Your cable company could squash its competitors by blocking them or making them unavailable to you.
• Your cable company could limit your choice in services by simply removing them from your connection.
• Your cable company could ensure only certain news websites were available to you to control the information you find.
• Your cable company could squash its competitors by charging them different prices to reach you based on their popularity.
• Your cable company could purposely degrade your connection speed for say Facebook, unless you are willing to pay extra for it.
• Your internet service would be much more like your cable service, only certain channels would be available.

So unless you are martian, living in outer-space, when someone asks you if you support “Net Neutrality”, the answer is YES, you do.