To the editor:

On December 16th the FCC will vote to dismantle Net Neutrality rules put in place by the previous administration. These rules protect the internet by allowing the government to regulate how ISPs are allowed to handle private internet traffic. At this time they are forced to treat all data equally and cannot put in place policies that charge more or less for some websites or services vs. others.

If Net Neutrality is ruled out, Big Telecom will be allowed to start charging for the internet much like they do currently with television packages. Instead of being charged a flat rate to visit all websites they will be able to charge for sites like YouTube and Netflix under an “Entertainment Package” or even Facebook and Twitter under a “Social Media Package”. There will also be nothing stopping them for charging you more to connect to websites or services faster. An example of this would be if you were an AT&T subscriber but wanted to view content owned by NBC-Comcast (a direct telecommunications competitor to AT&T) they would charge you more or flat out make the content hard to view at all.

The FCC opened a public forum for consumers to comment on the situation. While majority of the comments were in favor of keeping the rules in place, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai (a former lawyer/lobbyer for Verizon) has decided that public opinion will not sway his beliefs anyway.

Mississippi senators Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran have each taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in “Campaign Donations” from corporations in favor of getting rid of Net Neutrality. This is a very big deal but the Vicksburg Post doesn’t seem to think this is big enough to put on the front page. If the majority of the Post’s subscribers are reading online, is the Post not worried about being classified under a “News Package” that people won’t want to pay for?

Some people believe that Net Neutrality rules give the government too much regulation over Big Telecom and that they should be able to do as they wish within Anti-Trust laws. They also believe that many of the negative ideas such as Packages and Fast-Lanes are immoral lines that these corporations will not cross. I can’t remember the last time a multi-billion dollar corporation did anything with the hearts of their consumers in mind, can you?

John Gordon

Vicksburg