Repealing Net Neutrality is a topic that’s coming to light in these next few days. Montana has vowed to refuse to do business with businesses that violate it. Net Neutrality, we have to remember, is the idea that the internet is a neutral place. A place where people can build empires or laugh at cute cat pictures, and let’s face it, we like the net that way. It’s a smooth and simple method that has worked for years, even before the Obama Administration declared the net neutral.
What’s this about Montana declaring its own rules? Actually, lots of states have been looking into declaring their own rules which differentiate from the FCC.
New York is one of many who are looking for a loophole to ensure that the people who live within the borders of the state have a neutral, unbiased, and unaltered internet. The big deal about Montana is that it’s the first state to actually do it. A lot of states have been talking about it, but Montana actually did it.
What do the companies have to say?
Nothing thus far, but if I were them, I’d be irritated, to say the least. Now if they want to do business in Montana they have to abide by the previous rules of Net Neutrality. Why don’t they just pull out of Montana, though? Maybe because there are hundreds if not thousands of jobs in the state, and plenty of other wormholes they have their money wriggling around in.
Having hundreds of employees isn’t cheap. Having to suddenly lay off hundreds of employees? Between the lawsuits those employees would file, the on-site locations they’d have to shut down and sell, and all the equipment that goes into those locations, that is a lot of money out of their pockets. Add to this the fact that their services are no longer being used in the area and this is going to seriously hurt their income.
Some more detail
The Montana order is passed, but it won’t kick in until July, and it states that any ISP that wants or has a government contract cannot block customer access to content that is lawful, applications, or services at all. They have also banned paid prioritization, just to use an example, one company can’t pay to have their ads shown more than another.
As an even better analogy, one streaming site can’t pay to load faster than another. There are plenty of ways this could be put into effect if it wasn’t going to be illegal in Montana starting in July.
As another win, they can’t block companies from providing those services, and they (ISP’s) can’t do anything to cause a disadvantage to your ability to access the internet. I don’t know of any personal ways to do this, but if that clause wasn’t in there the ISP’s would find a way.
If Montana’s little plan pans out, and your state wants to get in on it, they can get the same manuscript that was passed in Montana. The biggest issue with this craziness? Comcast and Verizon are trying to stop it. Montana has to deal with the FCC’s “Restoring Internet Freedom” order which is the opposite of what it sounds like.
The FCC is still trying to ban states from ensuring Net Neutrality, and they’re going to keep trying, just as states like Montana will keep fighting against them for the sanctity of how we view the internet.
