The news about net neutrality has
been hovering around at every touch points I have been in contact with – Media
(print, TV, social etc.) or peer discussions and where not. Despite being an addict
of internet, I hardly ever bothered about the methodology by which these
contents on the internet were getting fed to me. I spend most of my leisure
hours on internet browsing Wikipedia, YouTube, TVF, social sites and other
sites on requirement. Suddenly one of my friends brings frightening news that I
may not be able to browse many of my favorite sites. Intrigued, I tried to figure
out the culprit behind this menace and it turned out to be something relating ‘ban on Net-Neutrality’.
Let me first put forward the idea
of Net-neutrality. Consider it this way – you go to an ice-cream parlor and
order your favorite kesar-pista. The guy on the counter delays your order but
serves promptly to people who order Chocó-chips, vanilla or strawberry flavor.
When inquired it gets registered in your cognition that since those flavors had
higher margins, you would be served last. In another example if your telecom
operator allows you to selectively make calls to people based on certain
revenue generation criteria, wont you feel cheated?
The same case applies on abolition
of net-neutrality. By definition it means – those internet service providers
must provide us with open networks and should not block or discriminate against
any application or content that ride over those networks. As of now, in a free
internet era, we as a user have been offered the freedom of choosing any site
we want to surf without discrimination. This makes us surf Flipkart or Amazon
or Yepme with the same internet speed. The service providers like Airtel or
Idea make these available with the same ease and comfort. Imagine a situation when
Flikart pays Airtel a certain sum of money to enhance its speed and slow down Amazon’s
and Yepme’s. What if you are an Airtel’s subscriber and your friends yells at
you to buy the limited edition Indian cricket jersey (1992 CWC) quickly from
Amazon as sale ends in five minutes, but you can’t buy because Airtel has
purposely slowed down Amazon’s site.
The move against net –neutrality
will not only discriminate between giant sites, but, it will also be a serious
bane for start-up ventures competing in this intense competitive market. Their
effort will be nipped in the bud. E.g. entertainment sites like TVF or AIB
which has gained popularity only due to net-neutrality will hardly be able to
survive since they may not be able to pay the amount as compared to other
giants.
In this era of freedom
encompassing every field, especially in the sector of internet which has become
the prime source of propagating freedom of speech, will definitely get
hampered. Such move will not only curtail the upcoming ventures but the very
basic right to freedom of speech.
It must, therefore, become our
incessant effort to come out in big numbers and keep demanding something which
is rightfully ours. Let not the power of this powerful tool be concentrated in
a few hands. Only a voice in chorus will sail our daunting concerns through and
open the veiled eyes of authorities who has lately been suffering from
biased-myopia.
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