Dec. 13 was the last day for net neutrality, after the FCC announced that the agency plans to repeal the principle, which was due to take effect Dec. 14. Net neutrality is the principle in which treatment of all content is equal and prevents ISPs from giving preference to some digital content providers. The act of net neutrality was passed early in the year of 2015 under President Obama. The initial act to repeal the principal was originated through FCC chief Ajit Pai. Pai was appointed earlier Thursday to proceed in the repeal by President Trump.
The repeal of net neutrality under Trump will ultimately be negative upon the structure of internet for many reasons. Repealing of the principle will allow ISPs to slow down competitors in networking and can even cost companies fees for certain content. Overall, the internet will run slower for trafficking throughout websites and content won’t be treated equally. Many services could be banned or negatively effected by the loss of net neutrality, such as Netflix.
Although it is uncertain how the loss of net neutrality will completely affect Netflix, one of the most prominent occurrences will be an additional fee to users of the network who stream movies. Another example how Netflix will be taking a loss from the repeal is that customers may be limited to the amount of movies able to be streamed a month without any fees, and HD streaming could be restricted, even to those who subscribed to a pricier monthly pay. In conclusion, Netflix may ultimately be slower to load movies and shows and could potentially be blocked out by some carrier providers, such as AT&T, altogether.
When asked in May this year, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings sought open internet as an important principle to the company and began to review the losses Netflix would take if the internet were no longer to be open. One of the CEOs biggest fear in the repeal of net neutrality is extra fees. One of the fees would be the additional cost for connection through ISPs placed with in the internet after the repeal of net neutrality.
“The key is the principle,” explains Hastings. “If they charge a little bit now, they will charge more and more and more [over time]. The fundamental question is, who’s going to pay for the network?”
Netflix has been a strong supporter for net neutrality to remain under law and for its guidelines that follow. The company will continue to stand strong against the fight to repeal #netneutrality.
