Net Neutrality on the Chopping Block
http://www.openrightsgroup.org/blog/net-neutrality-on-the-chopping-block/
Net neutrality has always been a governmental debate over how much control should internet providers have over which content the people should be allowed to view. This has always been a worldwide debate, as the reversal of net neutrality would result in internet providers being able to not only control what one can see, but also slow down, charge, or disable access to a given website. In the UK, currently there are parliamentary laws under review examining these given laws which protect net neutrality. A couple of these laws being reevaluated, the Open Internet Access Regulations (2016) and the E-Commerce Regulations (2002), are critical to every UK residents’ access to the internet’s content as well as their freedom of expression (Horton). A change in these net neutrality laws would only result in giving power to the internet providers, changing the way UK residents have access to the internet.
The change in the status of net neutrality in the UK would significantly affect the strongly connected components of the UK internet. With net neutrality laws still in effect, people are able to easily gain access to whatever content they search for or are connected to through previous content. With a change in the net neutrality laws, these current connections between nodes will change based on what internet provider you use and what they want you to see. The change in net neutrality will significantly change the maps between websites as a lack of net neutrality would allow these internet broadcasters to shape these maps into what they want. Not only could this have political motivations behind it, there can be economical motivations as well. Internet broadcasters could force specific websites to pay them in order for the websites to gain internet access on that provider’s search engine. This takes away the strongly connected components that depend on net neutrality in order to give the user access to all information on the internet, and instead creates strongly connected components that these search engines want and allow you to see.
Not only does this affect the groups of information that one can see, this goes against the principle of repeated improvement. When the internet creates its top searches from the number of clicks or views a website gets, a change in net neutrality would break this principle. Net neutrality in the UK would result in the UK’s top results for searches to be altered by the internet providers, completely changing the unbiased ranks of these websites. I believe that a change in net neutrality, whether it is in the UK, US, or anywhere in the world would have a significant effect on our internet access. The change in net neutrality laws in just one country would affect which information some people would have access to while others do not. The overall change in net neutrality would change how the internet works and have a negative impact on the world with what information we are allowed to see, how it is accessed, and what we have access to.