By Jocelyn Tolpin ’17, Staff Writer

Why do we love Google? Sure, it gives us access to everything on the Internet. But there’s another reason: it’s fast. Have you noticed that when you type anything into Google, results pop up in less than a second, while a smaller site, like Canvas, takes sometimes half a minute to load? Have you ever wondered why? The answer isn’t bad Internet connection.

The term “net neutrality” was coined by Columbia professor, Tim Wu, in 2004, although the debate over the issue began long before that. Net neutrality is a concept that would make it illegal for Internet providers to slow down certain websites. Right now, large companies, such as Google and Netflix, pay providers like Verizon and AT&T to make their websites load faster than others so they are therefore more popular to users. Companies that cannot pay the fees, however, suffer slower connections and demand higher prices for access to their websites, which are sometimes even blocked by the Internet provider. The lack of net neutrality is especially a problem for small startups or bloggers who don’t have the money to pay these providers.

Supporters of net neutrality argue that the amount of power that these big Internet companies have is unfair. By having the power to control the speed or availability of a website, they affect the users of the Internet and the population in general. Adam Magistro ’16 said, “Net neutrality is necessary to keep the Internet functioning the way it should be. [The Internet] is meant to be a collaborative learning environment for everyone. If you make people pay for different websites [because these websites do not pay the fees], then you are decreasing the diversity on the internet, which would result in revoking what the true use of the Internet is for.”  Some argue for net neutrality because of the simple ideal of equality. Meghna Padmanabhan ’17 said, “I agree that all data on the Internet should be treated equally. Freedom of the press!” Furthermore, current Internet users suffer when information they want is not available to them, and because when the websites they like, such as Netflix, have to pay more money to providers for higher speed Internet, Netflix charges more in order to make up for the lost capital. Everyone loses money except for the ones who provide the Internet.

Opponents of net neutrality like the system the way it is now. They argue that if all websites were treated equally, the quality of all of those websites would go down. An anonymous student argued, “Net neutrality is much like the argument for the communist regime. It claims that without net neutrality we’ll lose innovative ideas, however that is not true. The ideas would still be there but slower to come by. In addition, every single website would be brought down to a lower level because there would be no motivation to make those websites work better. It would simply ruin using the Internet.” Another argument against net neutrality is that if it were to exist, then investors would cease to invest in Internet providers because they would not want to invest in something so strictly regulated. This would financially disable many providers, thereby resulting in worse connections and higher cable and internet prices for all of us.

Newark Academy is an institution that adamantly stands for equality for all, so perhaps it is not surprising that many students are in favor of net neutrality. However, though the government is working to make this concept into a law, it has been ruled that the government cannot intervene in the ways private companies handle their finances and investors. Therefore, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is working to revise the proposal on net neutrality so that small startups, websites, and innovators have a chance to be in the spotlight.