From Tech Soup, June 14, 2006 By Henry Kumagai
Imagine if your nonprofit had to pay a fee to your Internet service provider in order for your Web site to turn up on search-engine results. Or what if your constituents could only access your site on a slower, more unreliable connection -- unless you made a higher monthly payment to your ISP?
While they may sound far-fetched, scenarios like these could become a reality if changes proposed by telecommunications companies are approved by the U.S. Senate.
Network Neutrality
The term "network neutrality" describes an Internet that does not discriminate based on the content or source of information. It is just as much an ideal as a practice: currently, users can go anywhere they want on the Internet, with phone companies and cable providers treating all traffic in a neutral manner.
The concept is similar to that of the common carriage provisions that govern the telephone system in the United States, whereby phone calls are treated with equal priority across a network, regardless of their source or destination.
Yet new legislation threatens to shut down this open system, setting up what have been described as "toll booths" on the Internet that would allow service providers to block or degrade access to competing sites and services. This would divide the Internet into two sets of users -- those who can afford to pay the heavy tolls to use the fast lane and those who are relegated to the slow lane because they can't pay the tolls, according to the PBS article A Closer Look at Net Neutrality.
A Raging Debate
Network neutrality has become a hot issue over the past months as Congress prepares to update the Telecommunications Act of 1996 to address the rapidly changing nature of the Internet and telecommun- ications.
On June 9, the House of Representatives voted to approve the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement (COPE) Act of
2006, a bill that lacks strong provisions for network neutrality and has withstood several attempts by House representatives to amend and include neutrality protections. The proposed legislation now moves to the Senate to decide how COPE will appear in its final form.This is in no small part due to the influence of several large telecommunications service providers and their equally powerful lobbies on Capitol Hill. ISPs like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast have expressed interest in creating a tiered Internet, whereby they would offer their broadband customers expedited service to content providers paying a premium for the privilege. With the growing popularity of high-bandwidth Internet content like streaming video, Internet providers say that a tiered Internet would allow them to build better networking infrastructure and higher bandwidth.
Yet companies including Apple, Amazon, eBay, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo - along with organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Christian Coalition of America - argue that the plan would effectively make broadband providers like AT&T the gatekeepers of Internet content, giving them the power to control who accesses what information.
These net-neutrality proponents argue that the "pay-to-play" model threatens to disrupt the equal cost of entry to disseminating information online, and even the democratic nature of the medium. Granting this authority to a few service providers could have dangerous consequences on freedom of speech and information. Net neutrality, they maintain, is vital to ensuring that the Internet remains a medium where information flows regardless of a provider's political or financial might.
Net Neutrality and Nonprofits
Earlier this year, AOL and Yahoo! appeared to test the waters on this issue by announcing that those sending emails (and especially mass emails) could pay a surcharge to bypass the mail clients' spam filtering mechanisms for direct delivery to their customers' inboxes.
Immediately, organizations such as Oxfam America and Friends of the Earth -- which, like many nonprofits, rely on mass emails to stay in touch with their constituents -- rallied to voice their opposition. The result? Yahoo! abandoned the policy, while AOL agreed to allow nonprofits to send unfiltered mail to their customers without paying a fee, so long as they adhered to basic anti-spam policies.
Now, nonprofits must again put up a fight to ensure that the Internet remains a free and open medium in the United States. The Internet offers nonprofits a powerful, affordable platform to raise money, reach out to constituents, and engage new ones. Nonprofits are becoming innovators in leveraging online technology to raise awareness and create social change. If network neutrality is not preserved, nonprofits may have to pay more to continue using the Internet as an outreach tool.
The Internet has allowed people around the world to share and distribute content quickly and inexpensively. As a tool of communication, it is unprecedented not only in its accessibility, but also in its democratic nature.
In a recent speech, former Vice President Al Gore stated, "It is particularly important that the freedom of the Internet be protected against either the encroachment of government or efforts at control by large media conglomerates. The future of our democracy depends on it."
As nonprofits, we must fight to keep the Internet neutral, not only for our own sakes, but for the sake of our causes and for free speech itself.
Learn More and Get Involved
Google the term "network neutrality" and you'll find Web sites, news articles, blog entries, and even videos devoted to the subject. Below are links to sites where you can learn more about the issue and join the network neutrality movement.
Learn More
The Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 Common Cause's outline of the bill, including its supporters and provisions and ways to get involved. National Journal's Insider Update - Ongoing coverage of the Telecom Act.
Get Involved Save the Internet - A nonpartisan coalition of groups across the country that have banded together to lobby for network neutrality. Sign the Save the Internet Petition at
About the Author: Henry Kumagai is a Technology Analyst at TechCommons, a project of CompuMentor.
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