Nathan Denny, Aplus.Net

There’s an important debate going on in the Internet world today. It’s called “net neutrality”—a simple name for a complex issue.

There’s already been a lot of talk, and controversy, surrounding this topic, so there’s a good chance you may have already heard about it. But for the benefit of those who haven’t, it’s important enough to run through again quickly:

Net neutrality is a general term for legislation in the U.S. Congress that would apply “common carrier rules” to Internet service providers (ISPs) and broadband carriers. In other words, ISPs would be required to manage all Internet traffic on equal terms and ensure that all web content remains equally accessible to all users.

If the net neutrality provisions fail, service providers will have the ability to give priority or preference to specific companies and their websites—a power they don’t currently have.

A lot of the argument against net neutrality comes from free-market principles. These principles suggest that the ISPs have the inherent privilege of dictating how service provided, because they are the ones providing it. Just like a television station can choose to show one program and not another, ISPs (net neutrality opponents argue) should have the ability to provide what they want.

So what’s wrong with that? Big name companies with large revenues will be able to pay for service, while free community-based sites (such as Craigslist) would be overshadowed. Although it’s true that Craigslist is large enough at this point that they may not be damaged by these new rules, the free Web environment that allowed them to be created would be gone. There would very likely be no new sites like Craigslist.

Aplus.Net has publicly endorsed net neutrality provisions. Aplus.Net’s official statement on net neutrality can be found here.

Find a much more detailed discussion of this topic here.