Saving the Internet for Consumers

[Commentary] The Internet is and was always intended to be an open and neutral network.

Right now, the FCC is crafting rules that will determine whether or not it will stay that way. Thursday is the last day for the public to submit comments on the proposed rules. Because of Net Neutrality, consumers have had unfettered access to new content and ideas online; our preferences and choices have determined which new ideas succeed and which don't. Net Neutrality simply means "no discrimination," and this user-powered architecture is the reason the Internet has become such a powerful engine for consumer choice and democratic empowerment. These protections have worked brilliantly. For two decades, the Internet thrived on openness. It became a competitive market in the truest sense. Under Net Neutrality, doctoral students working out of their dorm room created Google; college students started Facebook; a Pez hobbyist invented eBay; an Israeli teenager wrote the code for instant messaging. These innovators started small and used the Internet's level playing field to become major forces in the new media marketplace. Their ideas have disrupted the status quo of information gatekeepers to usher in an era where content and consumers are king. Their success stories have shown that innovation flourishes in an open marketplace where ideas rise and fall on their own merits. Remove Net Neutrality, and this marketplace tilts in favor of the phone and cable companies that control the connection to your home. Without a non-discrimination rule they will seek to control the content that flows through that connection as well.