How Trump’s arrival marks beginning of the end for net neutrality

The world is changing. Donald Trump is the new president of the United States, and along with him come the winds of change that have the potential to forever reshape the world as we know it. There is so much at stake here. In the real world. But if the real world is changing, so is the virtual world.

For the last several years, there has been a tussle going about the internet and who controls it, and in what way. At the heart of this tussle is net neutrality. Until now, wherever there has been a challenge to net neutrality, a concept that underpins the whole internet and its free-for-all character, in India or in the US, we have seen that it has survived. But its position has become more and precarious with each challenge. Now with Trump in the high office in the US, chances are that net neutrality is going to die soon.

All those thorny topics – climate change, LGBT rights, clean energy - that White House once took an interest in, have already been scrapped from the official website. This happened within hours of Trump entering the big office. Next in line is the elevation of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioner Ajit Pai to the post of chairman.

Interestingly, earlier when FCC, which regulates the telecom sector in the US the way TRAI does so in India, debated the merits and demerits of net neutrality, Pai was in favour of scrapping it. But the outrage, push from technology companies in defence of net neutrality and a nudge from Obama administration that wanted FCC to do the right thing, ensured that net neutrality survived in the US in 2015. FCC finally came out with a few rules that codified it.

But Pai as chairman of the agency is likely to scrap those rules, mostly because even President Trump doesn’t want it on the plate. His position favours the big telecom companies like AT&T and Verizon that want an end to net neutrality.

When that happens, the ramifications won’t only be confined to the borders of the US. The internet is a borderless place and because of the fact that most web infrastructure and big tech companies are based in the US, whatever happens there affects web users everywhere, even in India.

At the same time, a bigger worry is the precedent it will set. Whether it is the Europe or India, where TRAI is (again) seeking consultation on net neutrality, the idea that all websites should theoretically get access to same internet infrastructure is in danger. It survives but precariously.

Once the US has set the lead, the detractors of net neutrality will sense the blood. They will attack again, and this time it is not likely to survive.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

Also read: Will Facebook become the world's ultimate news source?

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