Net neutrality is the idea central to the Internet that no content provider should have priority over any other. Consumers pay for the pipeline, which gives access to all the content on the web. There are no back roads online, just one, big, wide, information superhighway.
Some internet service providers—the telecommunications industry, mainly—want to relegate most websites to the back roads while a few, well-funded content providers get the best connections. Just like cable, you would get “basic” access to just a few, “premium” websites, and you would have to pay extra for access to things like Wikipedia, Consumerist, Google, and the thousands of blogs, forums, free email providers, and other websites that make the Internet such a rich place.
Some ISPs have already started. Comcast was recently sanctioned by the FCC for throttling BitTorrent traffic, and Virgin Media’s CEO has called net neutrality “a load of bollocks,” saying he is already making deals to deliver some content faster.
McCain says he wants to leave net neutrality to the market. Which is a nice thing to say. But despite the market, the telecoms’ stated intention is to choke the internet to death.
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