Today (September 10) is Battle for the Internet Day

It’s all about Net Neutrality

What is net neutrality?

• Net Neutrality is the concept that ISPs (internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites

Is it a law?

• There are no enforceable regulations to prevent ISPs and other organizations from deciding who can access the internet and at what speeds.

Why not?

• Regulating broadband carriers falls under the job of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

• In 2010, a decision of the US Court of Appeals vacated two critical roles of the FCC in regulating broadband access.

What is the FCC?

• FCC is an independent agency of the federal government. Created in 1934, regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

• It is independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress, the commission is the United States' primary authority for communications law, regulation and technological innovation

What happened

In 2010, the FCC issued an Open Internet Order which

1. created rules regarding internet transparency and

2. Prohibited internet blocking (applies to websites, applications, services

3. Prohibited unreasonable discrimination (applies to transmission speeds and access to transmission)

Legal Action

The 2010 Open Internet Order came as a result of a lawsuit which Comcast initiated

Comcast first sued the FCC claiming the agency had no right to regulate the company’s network principles. The court agreed.

FCC then issued the 2010 Open Internet Order.Verizon then sued the FCC, and in February, the US Court of

Appeals in DC affirmed the FCCs right to regulate access and confirmed transparency rules

BUT the Court vacated rules about blocking and unreasonable discrimination

The court invited the FCC to act to maintain an open internet

FCC response

• FCC then initiated the current Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.

• Stating, “This Notice begins the process of closing that gap, proposes to reinstitute the no-blocking rule adopted in 2010 and creating a new rule that would bar commercially unreasonable actions from threatening Internet openness (as well as enhancing the transparency rule that is currently in effect).”

The Rulemaking Process

• Notice of proposed rulemaking• Public comment period• Review• Final rule• THE PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD IS OPEN UNTIL

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

Who’s affected

• Everyone. One divide is between for-profit corporations and public service institutions.

• Colleges, universities, libraries, and professional academic groups have created a joint set of Net Neutrality Principles to ensure freedom of speech, educational achievement, and economic growth.

What educators have said

• “If the FCC were to abandon net neutrality in favor of a toll superhighway, colleges and universities would be stuck in the slow lane.”

• “The Internet has helped serve as a great equalizer for society—providing information on virtually everything to anyone with a connection. The enormous societal advancements over the past two decades have been made possible in large part because of students, researchers, and educators’ ability to create, discover, and improve upon research and content posted on the web.”

Who’s online in the US alone?

How we depend on communication technologies

FCC Comments

• Comments close on September 15• The FCC has a special email account for

comment submission. • Helpful links about how to submit comments

and about what others are writing about Net Neutrality are in the blogpost below this powerpoint.