While the FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s arguments for a less regulated internet are noble, claiming that these rules are negatively affecting the economy through overregulation, the opportunity for entrepreneurs and startup founders to thrive because of an open internet is undeniable. The ability to compete and disrupt a particular industry is directly proportional to unmitigated access to the internet, for customers, employees, and founders alike. If paid fast lanes are made available to larger companies, what happens to startups without the resources to get the attention they need? Of course, this net neutrality vote doesn’t guarantee any of this will happen. Internet providers adamantly insist that they will commit to improve their infrastructure to provide quality internet to everyone, regardless of the rules in place, or lack thereof. If you think this noble declaration sounds too good to be true, you might be right. Asking internet providers to not take advantage of an understandably huge money-making opportunity is akin to leaving your bike unlocked hoping that nobody needs a bike bad enough to actually steal one. Or, as Senator Edward Markey put it: I’d love to believe that we can trust the integrity of the internet to its noble providers. I want to be confident enough in purveyors of the world’s most favorite necessity to believe they won’t take advantage of an opportunity to make a quick buck on our extended buffering times. I wish, oh how I wish that I could rest easy knowing someone, somewhere was committed to net neutrality in a way that didn’t require these “bright line rules.” But, simply put, I don’t. So in the words of Sam Altman: Photo: Flickr / Molly
