Guest author: Liam Blank

AUSTIN, DECEMBER 18- On December 14, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission repealed the rules of Net Neutrality (NN). If by some miracle you are reading this and don’t know what I’m talking about, and you are confused as to why there is a full article devoted to quite possibly the most boring combination of any 2 words in the English language, I’ll explain what it is. Net Neutrality is the principle term used to describe the set of federal regulations that make it a law for all U.S. Internet Service Providers (ISP) to treat all internet information the same. They cannot block a website demonstrating a political opinion they do not agree with, and they cannot charge additionally for users to go to a specific website.

Immediately, this sounds like a great idea. But as anyone, on the left or right, steps out of their own bubble and actually sees things for what they really are, they see that we needed to get rid of the regulations. Here is the reason why the repeal was long overdue.

Net Neutrality violated the First Amendment. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution states that “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…”, and while that may sound pretty straightforward, as far as this debate is concerned, it can get twisted around in many ways. But the answer is that NN directly violates the First Amendment. Remember that ISPs are private companies, and that they can restrict speech as they choose. This country has already had the debate over how free speech applies to the private sector. The Supreme Court Case Lloyd Corp. v Tanner (1972) says that: “it must be remembered that the First and Fourteenth Amendments safeguard the rights of free speech and assembly by limitations on state action, not on action by the owner of private property” and that “this Court has never held that a trespasser or an uninvited guest may exercise general rights of free speech on property privately owned.” So that means that the Net Neutrality regulations, which prevent ISPs, private companies, from exercising their own free speech. And that alone is enough of a reason to repeal NN, no questions asked.

Impact Calculus

In the previous paragraph, I gave the reason for why the repeal of Net Neutrality was overdue. But there are some in this country who feel that it is right to look past the legality into the ethics of the decision. Besides being a dangerous principle to live by, it can also be refuted in this debate. The main reason why people say we should look past the legality of Net Neutrality is that the ISPs would become monopolies, that they would put us all in a financial chokehold and squeeze every penny we have left out of us. And I guess that’s a reason to toe the line of falling into anarchy. (Not at all). To respond to that inaccurate and ignorant claim, all we have to do is think of another boring, two-word political principle. That’s right, put your hands together and give a warm welcome to: Free Enterprise!

The repeal of Net Neutrality does not mean we all go broke from paying thousands to ISPs. Mostly all the tech progressives in America have given the doomsday scenario that we will all end up paying additionally to ISPs to use websites like Instagram, Snapchat, and Netflix, just to name a few. It sounds terrible to literally everyone in this country that uses those services, and that is good-size portion of America. So any semi-intelligent business executive who understands the market trend and public opinion would realize that it would be suicide for an ISP to charge additionally. There would be such a public outcry, that everyone using the ISP would immediately switch to another, more reasonable one. And if there isn’t one, there are enough people to make one. It’s how the system works. We may be slightly controlled by a company, but at the end of the day, we control it at a much larger scale.

They say that what most people remember the most from a good speech is what you say last, so I like to end my articles with a review, or a good conclusion.

From what was written, we can conclude that the repeal of Net Neutrality was the right thing, both legally and ethically. Legally, we found that Net Neutrality violates the First Amendment. So, Net Neutrality is overruled by the Constitution. Next, we found that we won’t end up being hurt by the repeal either. Lest we forget, this government is of the people, by the people, and for the people. Our elected and appointed officials would not institute a policy out of gratuitous cruelty, so the apocalyptic scenarios that have been predicted will never happen. Remember, these regulations were instituted in 2015. And while I may be still a legal minor and I don’t know what life was like before my time, I can safely say life was pretty good prior to the implementation of NN. With all the reasons why we should repeal and none for why we shouldn’t, it only makes sense that we cut this red tape.