What Does Net Neutrality Stand For?
An open, lawful internet.
Net Neutrality ensures that Internet users have the right to access lawful websites of their choice and to post lawful content, free of discrimination by network providers. In other words, network providers cannot block or slow down lawful content they dislike. Net Neutrality doesn’t interfere with the rights of copyright laws or musicians. It just says that a vibrant marketplace of ideas cannot function with corporate censors.
Equal Internet access at an equal price.
Under Net Neutrality, network providers cannot give preferential treatment to their own services at the expense of competing sites consumers want to use. In many markets, Internet access is only available through one or two providers. Equal access at an equal price means that network providers cannot abuse their monopoly by barring access, providing slower access, or charging higher premiums to popular services competing with their own. The free market, and not tollbooths run by a few corporate monopolies, must be allowed to decide Internet winners and losers.
Consumer choice.
Since 1968, Net Neutrality has allowed consumers to choose the equipment they want, or make it themselves, and attach it to any network. In 1996, Congress reaffirmed this right by directing the FCC to adopt regulations permitting consumers to have the final choice of cable boxes used to convert television signals. Net Neutrality prevents network providers from eliminating competing equipment by making it incompatible with their gateway. In the process, it ensures that equipment choice remains in the hands of Internet users, where it rightfully belongs.
