When the FCC voted to repeal net neutrality recently, it also voted against the environment.
Its efforts to spread propaganda that defended its decision is one that seeks to hide the truth about what will really be the consequence of removing the impartiality of net neutrality – and that is the slow but serious destruction of the environment.
Without net neutrality, ISPs will be forced to continue upgrading their systems in order to be awarded preferential treatment and have access to customers. This has serious implications on land destruction, as the fight for better internet speed will mean more undersea digging to upgrade and proliferate network cables. It will mean that smaller outfits will feel the crunch, and will then pass on the costs to the consumers. Consumers will have to live on lousier internet services yet pay extravagant fees, and then will have no choice but to do it because their lives and perhaps their work already revolve around the internet.
The slowdown will mean more time spent online just to get data and content that used to be attained in less time. This will mean more electrical and energy consumption, which translates into using more of the world’s energy and natural resources to provide the energy.
And in addition, preferential treatment and discrimination over what consumers will have access to means real information about what is really happening to the environment will not reach those who want them. People will be misguided about the already sorry state of our land, seas, and air. We will continue on thinking that all is well; but behind the curtain, a major disaster is slowly brewing and setting itself up to wreak havoc on internet consumers who have no clue about what’s to come, because of the FCC's ignorance. The FCC has not done their due diligence and is not following any scientific procedure--only following marching orders to line big companies' pockets.
Indeed, the FCC’s decision about repealing net neutrality is anti-Earth and anti-good. And that is all the more reason why we should continue to push for legislation that will reverse such a policy. Checks and balances aren't just the three branches of government--it begins with each and every one of us doing the right thing.
Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2017/11/30/fcc-makes-tone-deaf-appeal-to-destroy-net-neutrality-and-possibly-the-internet/#7da8a3115f96
https://www.ecowatch.com/could-the-loss-of-net-neutrality-harm-the-environmental-movement-1881908999.html