Weekly News 20



Why we should be wary of ending net neutrality 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/media-blog/2017/nov/26/net-neutrality-law-trump-deregulation-media
Activists wear Guy Fawkes masks as they hold placards during a demonstration supporting net neutrality in Bangalore

Key Data/ Statistical Info
  • Activists see the ending of net neutrality, effectively the rules that stop internet service providers discriminating against certain types of content, as having serious consequences for smaller or more diverse web services that will no longer be protected from providers either slowing their traffic or pricing them out of the market altogether. 
  • It has also been heavily criticised by large technology companies and social platforms, which see it as tipping the scale in favour of telecoms providers such as AT&T and Verizon.
  •  In practice, platform companies such as Facebook grew bigger than traditional media and Amazon and others rapidly moved from shopping to producing films and video series.
  • However, ending net neutrality forms only part of an agenda by the Trump administration, which is aggressively removing regulations around other restrictions on media ownership.
  • Simply put, the idea is to allow for much more consolidation in the US media market. The removal of these rules on the one hand makes some sense in a world where linear and cable broadcasting is losing share to streaming on the web. However, it is hard to separate the machinations of the FCC’s market-driven agenda from a political agenda that is only interested in regulating media as a free market rather than a civic service or cultural good.


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