AB2² | Alex's Blog

Okay so apparently, the Supreme Court has ruled that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have the authority to determine priority of packets based on their own discretion.

This means that if they want to make CNN more important than Fox News, they can do it. If they want to make Yahoo load faster than Google, they can do it. If they want to say that your online gaming packets are less important than Mr. John Smith’s email packets, they can do that.
They can now legally choose what information to pass on, and how quickly and in what order to do so.

One might say “Well who cares? They’re not going to NOT pass on my emails and stuff, they’ll just do so at a slightly slower rate, and I won’t even notice.” Well this may be true, but it may not be true.
For those of you who like to game online, it might influence you the most, because if your ISP determines that your game’s packets aren’t top priority, or at that a low priority, you might end up with what everyone refers to as a ‘high ping’, causing your gaming experience to be a lot less enjoyable.
The same is true for those of you who enjoy streaming movies from whatever service you may choose, such as Hulu or Netflix or YouTube. If your ISP determines that it thinks that type of data is ‘low priority’ it will cause lag, and generally result in an undesirable experience.

So what’s the problem, other than some things slowing down and others possibly speeding up?
Well, if your ISP wants more money, they can now go to Fox News and say “Well, if you want your page to load at full speed, you have to pay us 10 million USD a year.” Now, Fox News might not care because the money to them is worth it, and they have it certainly. However if you run your own website, how would you feel about it loading slower for some people because you don’t have money to shell out for what is essentially extortion by their ISPs? I know I wouldn’t like it one bit.

Further more, this actually represents a breakdown of the original concept of how the internet is supposed to function. Originally, each computer in the network that data passes through must pass the data on in the order it was received, to it’s destination, no questions asked. The computer may not interfere with the data, as that does not permit the free and efficient flow of information.

So if you happen to be in charge of an ISP, or might have some pull in and ISP’s decision in whether or not to filter and prioritize packets like this, please speak out against it. Even if you have no pull what so ever, speak out against these new policies, and please support Network Neutrality, an important component of free speech in the 21st century.