[ot-caption title=”A group of concerned Seattle Democrats demonstrate on net neutrality. (via Flickr/Backbone Campaign)”][spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]

A few days following the US presidential election, President-elect Trump tweeted and spoke on the topic of net neutrality and how he is against the regulation. To begin, net neutrality is a key governmental policy that regulates the internet and has been a cornerstone topic for the Obama Administration. It has been a source of outrage within the online community whenever the government has tried to alter its stance on net neutrality. Fundamentally, net neutrality forces internet service providers (ISPs), companies like Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, and Time Warner that provide homes and businesses with access to the internet, to offer access to all websites and sections of the internet at the same speed. Opponents of this policy would like to give companies the right to change the internet speed with which these ISPs can provide consumers depending on the content or website they are trying to access. This is the stance taken by President-elect Trump.[spacer height=”20px”]

However, proponents of net neutrality argue that removal of the regulation will give undue power to ISPs and will result in a loss of one of the foundational principles of its creation, which is free expression and equality for all. The internet has been a sanctuary for equalizing the distributional chain for media that puts an individual with a camcorder at the same level as the traditional media outlets. Under Trump’s presidency, this current capacity of the internet could be lost and websites like Netflix or YouTube could see their speeds reduced, as they require much more bandwidth to stream videos than do other services. Even more pressingly, this could become a form of censorship that would be entirely at the behest of this oligopoly of ISPs. Comcast, for example, could decide to slow the speed of connection for an unfavorable media source if a degrading article were written about them. Therein lies the fundamental issue with dismantling net neutrality: True freedom of speech and expression on the internet will be lost as soon as this principle is violated.[spacer height=”20px”]

Trump has consistently pointed to overregulation as a key issue with government today and sees net neutrality as a governmental overreach that could give it censorship power over the internet. Prominent technology leaders like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates have spoken out in favor of net neutrality, and it is reasonable to think that there will be significant backlash in response to any attempt by the Trump administration to dismantle net neutrality. Ultimately, the 2016 President-elect has made innumerable controversial comments and net neutrality abolition stands as a key one, so only time will tell whether this will truly be part of Trump’s agenda into the future.[spacer height=”20px”]

Sources: Business Insider, The Washington Post  Photo Source: Flickr