Gadgetory

you've probably heard a great deal about net neutrality and its importance and consequences it will have for your online experience but what if you don't know exactly what it is I mean is it some vague idea of the internet being exactly the same for everyone we all go to the same web pages does it mean that we're trying to turn cyberspace into Switzerland no in its simplest terms net neutrality means that all traffic on the Internet is given equal priority data travels along a series of tubes in little bundles called packets that's the Internet when you download something the data is broken up into packets the packets take the quickest routes they can find over the internet then they're reassembled when they reach your computer into a coherent video or cat meme or whatever else the way the Internet has traditionally been set up is that all packets are treated equally by the servers and other equipment that handled them regardless of who's sending them who's receiving them and what they contain much like cars on a highway the speed limit isn't affected by who's driving or what's in the car so the net neutrality debate has been over whether ISPs or Internet service providers should be able to start giving certain kinds of content priority over others for example Comcast and Netflix had a dispute over whether Netflix should pay Comcast for using so much of their bandwidth when Netflix initially refused on the grounds that Comcast customers were in their eyes already paying for the bandwidth Comcast throttled the speed at which Netflix could access Comcast's network and their users that is to say the customers of both Comcast and Netflix started receiving lower quality videos and it was only after Netflix Pony dup cash that Comcast restored full speed access well hold on a second line this isn't it fair that Netflix paid Comcast something if their service uses up so much of the available bandwidth I mean doesn't someone have to pay for all the extra burden on the ISP well that certainly is one of the main arguments that people who are against strict net neutrality often use but there are quite a few arguments in the other direction that have really caused this debate to well rage on and on one of the most important arguments in favor of net neutrality is that ISPs could abuse their ability to charge content providers I mean suppose Comcast wants to make it super easy to stream programming from NBC a network that it owns but then slows competing video services to a crawl unless they pay a hefty fee in the United States the internet isn't regulated as a public utility the same way that say phone and power companies are which means that Comcast could be free to do this in the absence of net neutrality regulations I mean could such a world lead to a cyber divide between the haves and have-nots I mean if the owner of some online start-up wants users to be able to load her website quickly will she have enough in her Kickstarter funded coffers to pay all the major ISPs I mean would the ISPs abused their power I'm not much for random fear-mongering but I think that given their track record there might be something to the fears of Pro net neutrality advocates about potential high tolls that ISPs could charge to access their tubes and that could discourage Web Services that can't afford to pay extra potentially stifling innovation but this video won't go too much further into that and is not intended to cover this topic thoroughly and in depth it's more of a prompt for you to do some further reading Ben if you feel so inclined send a letter to your elected representative to let them know how you feel because no matter where you sit on the network neutrality debate there's little doubt that will have profound consequences for everyone who uses the Internet whether your thing is trolling be reading poorly written or well written fanfiction or watching videos of yours truly talk about best filters or whatever speaking of filters why not 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