Net neutrality: two words, coined by the left-leaning law professor, Tim Wu, mean cable and telephone companies must treat Internet traffic equally. With the FCC’s move to reclassify the Internet under Title II, the term’s definition has evolved to include potentially barring Internet service providers (ISPs) from interconnecting with content companies, such as Netflix or Facebook, to ensure top-notch delivery of their content. Consumers thrive when content companies deliver services at lightning-fast speeds, so why should the FCC meddle in — or outright ban — paid interconnection arrangements between ISPs and content companies? As Ryan Radia of the Competitive Enterprise Institute explains in Reason:
Interestingly, some big content companies seem content with this outcome, perhaps because household names like Netflix already have the attention of consumers. But as Berin Szoka and Geoff Manne presciently observe, net neutrality is especially harmful to the little guys—Internet startups—who strive to differentiate themselves from entrenched players, perhaps through paid prioritization. Predicting the Internet’s killer app two decades hence is a fool’s errand, but whatever it is, it will surely entail unprecedented volumes of data. We should embrace commercial deals to fund network expansion, not declare them illegal.