FCC’s ‘fast lane’ Internet plan threatens free exchange of ideas

[Commentary] The world was introduced to Kickstarter when our Web site went live in 2009. One thing we didn’t have to worry about: access to the Internet. We didn’t have to negotiate a deal with a cable company or other Internet service provider (ISP). Such roadblocks would have created enormous logistical and financial hurdles -- ones so big they might have shut us down before we got started.

But that’s the world that start-ups will be born into if the Federal Communications Commission moves forward with its proposed rules allowing paid prioritization -- a system where Internet carriers can charge for access to a “fast lane.” Once a fast lane exists, it will become the de facto standard on the Web. Sites unwilling or unable to pay up will be buffered to death: unloadable, unwatchable and left out in the cold.

It won’t be enough anymore to have a great idea and to execute it well. New entrepreneurs will have to pay their ISP tax, too. This proposed system would incentivize entrepreneurs to divert resources from their customers and staff and into paid deals with ISPs. Trading healthy competition for deep pockets is a terrible way to create an innovative, competitive economy.

It’s also a terrible way to promote a vibrant culture and informed citizenry. Allowing paid priority access and content discrimination would threaten the free exchange of ideas that takes place online, between people from all around the world, every second of every day. That free exchange is key to what makes the Internet such a powerful force.

[Strickler is chief executive and co-founder of Kickstarter]