Summary
The impact on digital marketing from the elimination of net neutrality will be “profound.”
That’s according to Ryan Singel, a fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society and an expert on net neutrality.
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The basic principle, Stanford law professor Barbara van Schewick wrote recently on Medium, is that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) “don’t get to pick winners and losers on the Internet.”
This, she noted, has been “a well-oiled free market at work.”
Over the last 15 years or so, Singel pointed out, net neutrality has essentially been the way the internet has worked, although there have been a variety of court and FCC decisions batting around the concept.
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The broadband providers have been trying to get more control over the internet for at least a decade, Singel said. And, if Rai’s proposal is approved at the December meeting, their dream will go into effect within 30 to 90 days.
The effects will probably not be immediately felt, he predicted, but will creep up “like water boiling a frog.”
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Singel said that is possible but doubtful because wired internet — the way homes and businesses are connected — is “not a super-competitive market.” Many areas have only two providers, he pointed out, and some only have one.
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“If AT&T starts blocking [Microsoft-owned] Skype, then maybe the FTC will do something,” Singel told me.
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As for technological workarounds, Singel said it’s conceivable that some form of virtual private networks (VPNs) could create ecosystems where content and sources are hidden from the internet service providers.
“But that gets into an arms race,” he said, where a Comcast could learn what is happening and add major new access charges for VPNs.
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