Internet is knowledge. Knowledge is power. Quick thoughts on the Internet revolution of access to knowledge
- by New battle fronts in sight for Net neutrality
Although the American FCC recently announced that Net neutrality rules will be mandated to Internet service providers (ISPs), new problems could arise and weakens the democratic potential of the Internet.
First, “Google neutrality”, and discrimination related to behavioral advertising. Ars has an interesting piece about a paper reflecting on the potential need for search neutrality and associated issues. As, the author, Mr. Odlyzko sums up:
“For telecommunications, given current trends in demand and in rate and sources of innovation, it appears to be better for society not to tilt towards the operators, and instead stimulate innovation on the network by others by enforcing net neutrality. But this would likely open the way for other players, such as Google, then emerge from that open and competitive arena as big winners, to become choke points. So it would be wise to prepare to monitor what happens, and be ready to intervene by imposing neutrality rules on them when necessary”.
For instance, there is the traditional risk to see search engines discretely orienting search results towards commercial ends, thus introducing an illegitimate bias in what people get to see on the Internet. As Ars explains, with the advent of behavioral advertising, other discriminations could also develop based on consumers’ profile.
Second, “Content neutrality”. U.S cable operators are complaining about some exclusive agreements between content providers and other ISPs. They give the example of Walt Disney’s espn360.com, which can only be accessed by American subscribers whose ISP have signed an agreement with Disney. (Pretty ironically, the same companies are teaming up with other telecoms operators to wash down the FCC’s Net neutrality’s rules…).
[The American Cable Association] is urging the FCC not to overlook the importance of Content Neutrality because rules solely focused on broadband network providers would leave a gaping hole in the regulatory regime and expose consumers to an assortment of harms that would likely drive up the cost of broadband, a result totally at odds with the Obama Administration’s goal of making broadband access both universal and affordable
In the end, it is all about ensuring that no new gatekeepers emerge in the 21st century communications ecosystem.
