Commentary: Net neutrality would ensure an even playing field

Net neutrality is quite literally one of most important issues of the decade.

I’ve been involved with software development and computer networking my entire life. I am the owner of a small software company and also very involved with politics on all levels, advocating for smaller government.

Net neutrality has been around in practice, law or both since the beginning of the Internet. In January, a federal Court of Appeals struck down the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality rules.

In a nutshell, net neutrality ensures that when you ask your browser to visit a website, it simply works. Want to go to CNN.com? Done. eBay? No problem. How about Netflix? Violà, choose a movie.

The reason this works so well is that there is no content filtering. All data traffic is treated equally. This is the essence of net neutrality.

Since the repeal in January, the first shots have been fired in a war that has the power to fundamentally change the way the Internet functions in our nation — forever. Specifically, Comcast, which provides Internet and cable TV, began throttling the connections for Netflix, which provides Internet-based TV. Comcast demanded payment of millions of dollars in exchange for turning the pipes back on. Netflix initially refused, but quickly came to realize that this was no bluff and succumbed to the demands, paying millions so that its customers could finally access its service again.

Again, this was merely the first shot fired. What if Big Cable decides to simply not allow Netflix or other streaming services because they compete with core cable business?

What if eBay secures a deal to be the only shopping website for a provider? The Internet service providers can simply shut down these services and deny access to Internet users.

The knee-jerk response from free-market advocates, like me, would be to simply let the free market take care of it. There’s only one problem: There is no free market when it comes to ISPs.

High-speed Internet has a grip on most markets and an overtly non-competitive duopoly in the rest. Simply put: Free market methodology cannot be applied to monopolies, because no competition will be generated.

The solutions being offered at the federal level are all centered on a false dichotomy: that we can either reclassify the Internet as a Title II service or we can have no net neutrality at all. Both of these are equally dangerous.

The FCC classification of “Title I” is essentially a laissez faire classification. This is how the Internet is currently categorized. It is not taxed and is largely left unregulated by the FCC. In simple terms, government has said, “We don’t understand this emerging technology, so we aren’t going to mess with it.”

The FCC classification of “Title II” is what governs things like radio and television — well-known mediums whose fundamental technology doesn’t often change. They are subject to “decency standards” and also a whopping 16.1% tax. The last thing we need online is the FCC dictating what kind of speech we can have — or a 16.1% tax.

There are two ways to restore net neutrality without destroying the Internet in the process:

1.) Allow the FCC to appeal the January decision to the Supreme Court (and win). This maintains its status as a Title I service.

2.) Through an act of Congress, mandate that the Internet remain a Title I service and also apply net neutrality rules to it.

I believe that the Internet is one of the most important things that humankind has ever created. It has allowed the free exchange of ideas, the streamlining of business and revolutions in efficiency that we could never have previously imagined. It is one section of the U.S. economy that has continued to grow.

We must be extremely careful with what we do and how we treat this great mechanism. The decisions we make today will have an enormous impact in 20 years. To have the best possible opportunity for competition internationally, our children need and deserve the Internet with net neutrality rules intact.

Please help work with me to spread the word about the necessity of restoring net neutrality, but never, ever by reclassifying the Internet as a Title II service.

MICHAEL GLENN lives in Newport Beach.