GITA 2

Net Neutrality is the principle that all communication through the internet should be treated neutrally, with none favored or discriminated against. For example, an Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as AT&T wouldn’t be able to promote their DirectTV when a user searches for Netflix. Net neutrality is essential for the user to share and receive content that they want without interference, and is fought for in the United States as well as other countries.

In 2005, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began the fight for net neutrality. BitTorrent was a service that shared files from peer to peer. However, most of the files shared were pirated, and Comcast slowed connections that used BitTorrent. The FCC ordered Comcast to stop but was sued by Comcast who won. In 2010, the FCC passed another net neutrality bill but was sued by Verizon in 2014. Once again, the FCC lost because it had no authority to impose the net neutrality regulations against broadband services. In 2015, the FCC brought up the issue of Internet fast lanes, where companies could pay the ISPs to allow faster access to their sites while companies with smaller budgets wouldn’t be able to. They passed another net neutrality law but won the lawsuits this time.

In 2017, the newly appointed chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, reverted the net neutrality law. In 2018, many states in America sued the FCC and wanted the return of the new laws, but lost in court. Today, we have net neutrality laws that are state-level, and many states ban agencies from doing business with ISPs that don’t support net neutrality. Now, in 2022, net neutrality is looking towards a comeback in America because of the newly appointed Jessica Rosenworcel. Net neutrality affects our daily lives by promoting or hiding content from us, the user. Some countries take advantage of the absence of net neutrality, including China and Portugal, to censor media from their citizens.

Internet censorship is the act of restricting internet access by a higher power. Governments or a third party usually censor terrorist posts online, but could also censor valuable information to control what people see. Internet censorship is a good idea, but it turns bad when it is used in malicious ways.

Internet censorship could come in many forms. In Uganda government officials shut down internet access as well as manipulated online conversations right before the presidential vote. The internet came back up immediately after the Ugandan government declared that President Museveni won a free and fair election. Another case would be the ‘Great Firewall’ of China. China is notorious for censoring the internet, with sites such as Google completely banned in China. Many countries use internet censorship as a means to interrupt the flow of information that could potentially ruin their plans, such as rigging elections. However, internet censorship could also be used for the good. One example would be Google removing Nazi, anti-semitic, and extremist websites. Google also includes Safe-Search, a feature that filters out harmful and explicit content.

Nowadays, most of what we search for is censored. However, most of what is censored are like that for a reason. Whether it is to protect us or to protect others, internet censorship is mainly for the best as there are many malicious websites out there attempting to steal our information.

The Digital Divide is the separation of people who have access to the internet, and those who don’t. Many factors affect the digital divide, such as education or income. Something must be done about the digital divide, as those with computer access are becoming richer than those without due to the power of education, which widens the gap between communities.

The digital divide is mainly caused by the levels of education. Studies have shown that households with higher education are more likely to spend time on a computer, whereas the people with less education are up to 25% less likely to use a computer. Another factor that majorly contributes to the digital divide is income. Households who have more income are 20 times more likely to use a computer than lower-income households, and those living in urban areas are 10 times more likely to have a computer than those in rural areas. This directly correlates to the next factor, race. The difference in computer usage when comparing the computer usage of White households with Black or Hispanic households is about a 40% increase by White households. In a study, Hispanic-American households generally view internet access as a luxury and something that distracts them from time with family.

Something must be done to lessen the gap. An increase in the digital divide results in an increase in the wage gap. Some solutions include universal access to computers and the internet, as well as an increase in Community Access Centers. Currently, CACs are mainly used by the unemployed, which is the group mainly affected by the digital divide. An increase in educational programs towards computer usage could benefit not just the user, but the whole community.