Understanding Cruciality and Necessity of Net Neutrality

In my opinion, the existence of Net Neutrality is necessary and extremely crucial. My argumentations can be illustrated in four aspects. They’re protecting freedom of speech, avoiding corporate censorship of speech, safeguarding consumer interests and maintaining fair competition for enterprises. To, ordinary citizens, freedom of speech is one of the significant democratic values. Net neutrality requires that Internet service providers treat all transmitted website’s contents equally. According to Molnar, P. (2014). “Free speech is the bedrock of democracy. It supports and gives the meaning to three building blocks of an open society.” This principle guarantees people can freely browse various websites and express their opinions. They will not be blocked because of the speed of the Internet.
Besides, avoiding corporate censorship of speech helps people obtain diverse information. Net neutrality requires Internet service providers can not treat all contents differently. The principle effectively prevents Internet providers from using their power to countercheck people to browse specific contents that are disadvantaged to them and opinions which the companies object. In other words, People will be able to receive a variety of different messages and make their judgments and ideas for various events.

Moreover, safeguarding consumer rights is another achievement of net neutrality. Net neutrality requires internet providers cannot charge for users, content or websites, slow down the speed of internet and ensure that all website content is loaded at the same rate. It prevents Internet providers from taking advantage of their power and unfair approaches to earn unreasonable profits from consumers. Consumers can choose their favorite network plans by their own decision rather than being enforced to collect fees by huge companies.

Most important of all, net neutrality establish a level playing field for all businesses. It permits large companies and small enterprises can compete on the same foundation. Small companies also have the ability to compete with huge corporations and launch better products and services. Most governments in the world are committed to avoiding the market being monopolized by a few companies. Because this situation will hinder progress and innovation, with fair competition, technology and techniques can continue to improve. Consumers will have more choices for diverse products.

In contrast, if we consider from the perspective of Internet provider companies, it is not complicated to comprehend why they are against Internet neutrality. The internet provider industries are concentration on profits. Large companies certainly hope less control. Besides, internet provider companies must be accountable to shareholders. According to Kokemuller, N. (2019). “Companies with shareholders have historically had a single primary objective of maximizing profit. While many companies try to balance shareholder interests with those of other stakeholders, profit objectives are typically still in focus with shareholders”. They are facing pressure, so the companies must consider earning profits as their most significant targets. Basically, their reasons are acceptable. However, Internet providers should not use unreasonable and improper methods to control the Internet for profit because this monopoly and irrational methods will hinder the healthy development of the internet industry and the advancement of technology. They should attempt to seek other technological innovations, for instance, the technical development of Artificial intelligence and IOT techniques. Personally, the existence of Net Neutrality matches the benefits of the majority of the people and other companies. The objection of net neutrality only makes partially huge corporations earn the profit. Comparing with the two different opinions, the value of net neutrality protection is much higher than just profiting for some companies. Therefore, the existence of net neutrality is essential and indispensable.