Hi! My name is Caroline Quint and I am a media advertising student at Indiana University in Bloomington. I am originally from Miami Florida, but I am currently studying abroad in Barcelona. I spend most of my time watching youtube makeup videos, listening to rap music, and trying new foods. Although growing up in Miami included a lot of Spanish speaking, it did not prepare me for the new cultures waiting for me in Spain. Since arriving in Barcelona, i’ve been paying close attention to the different customs and ways of life compared to that of America. Whether it is the way people shop at supermarkets, order at restaurants, or show affection in public, coming to Spain for the first time has been a major culture shock.
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Net neutrality is something that the media has been buzzing about a lot in the past few years. There are many reasons why net neutrality has become such a relevant issue. Some of these reasons include political aspects, economic aspects, and human rights aspects. When watching Berners Lee Ted Talk called “The next web of open, linked data” he goes into detail about how young the internet is. We are living in a time when the internet is fairly new, and our society is still adjusting to the different parts it has to offer. He believes that to have a better functioning society, net neutrality is extremely necessary. Net neutrality could go as far as to curing cancer and Alzheimer’s, as well as other common societal crisis’s we face. This can greatly benefit the flow of information.
He also goes into detail about linked data, which is a way to make information more easily accessible to all internet users. This is the future of our internet use, and it is important to take advantage of the potential this could have to break barriers. Many people have taken to twitter to express their stance on net neutrality. People are arguing that this is a fundamental right, no servers should be given the “fast lane” according to an article by Jonathan Perri (1). This is not only unfair to certain companies, but people are also fed up for political reasons. We would like to think of the internet as unbiased, however they are pushing through data that is favorable and specifically chosen. For example, with Donald Trump, there has been a lot of discrimination in net neutrality, pushing conservatives more out of the internet. People are taking to twitter to protest net neutrality, and also make jokes about certain groups who are being denied access to favorable sites.
Net neutrality is also extremely important for free speech reasons. If people were to be able to share information freely then it would greatly benefit the whole scape of the internet. Free speech is one of the most important rights that we have in the US, and the internet is something that is supposed to enhance the right, not take it away from us more. People take to online to discuss political debates, world issues, and current events having to do with celebrities, and other countries. Without this ability, people would be less involved in what’s going on in the world, making for a less educated society. Privacy rights are directly related to net neutrality as well. This has everything to do with censoring the internet, and if they can censor the internet, they can do virtually whatever they want to internet users. There are no true laws of privacy when it comes to using social platforms, or even just owning devices. Nothing is stopping people from accessing personal information about us. One thing that is of concern is the internets ability to target users with certain advertisements and announcements. This is a great way for companies to advertise, when they use our personal information to target us, but some people are against having the internet know their personal information. This all ties into the question of the importance of privacy, and how we give it up with just the simple use of technology.
Without net neutrality, people are denied access to many streams of information that are essential for daily functioning. Net neutrality advocates are concerned that these fast lanes are going to keep increasing, instead of diminishing. According to an article on WIRED, by Klint Finley (2), the topic of net neutrality all started back in 2003, when people were fed up with companies like AT&T and Comcast banning certain WiFi routers from being used by consumers. This is an unfair use of censorship that should not be controlled by the small companies. If net neutrality was in full affect, we would face the disadvantages that companies try to enforce onto its customers.
In an article by Solana Larsen (3), she discusses how as people “we are drowning in dystopian visions of the internet”, which I agree with. We think the internet is supposed to be there for us and be completely unbiased, however, this is just not the case. The Web We Want project’s goal is to improve the future of the internet. They want people to protest their rights actively on the internet and push to have the most freedom of speech possible. The more outspoken this issue becomes then the more relevancy there is and the internet can improve from there. This will truly help the future of our internet, and make for a better online community. It is little additions like these which will greatly help the issue.
- Mashable. “How Killing Net Neutrality Will Hurt Online Protests and Free Speech.” Mashable. Mashable, December 7, 2017. https://mashable.com/2017/12/07/net-neutrality-digital-activism-free-speech/?europe=true.
- Finley, Klint. “Net Neutrality: Here’s Everything You Need To Know.” Wired. Conde Nast, October 30, 2018. https://www.wired.com/story/guide-net-neutrality/.
- Larsen, Solana, Solana Larsen, Ahmad, – Annie Love, and Gnaneshwar Gaddam. “Who Saved The Web?” Web We Want, August 4, 2016. https://webwewant.org/news/who-saved-the-web/.
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