Who is defending net neutrality?

Timothy John Berners-Lee points out that “net neutrality is really important. Basically we do so much cool stuff on top of the network layer, it has to remain an unbiased infrastructure for all our discussion, innovation, etc. I must have the right to be able to communicate with whatever or whoever I want, without discrimination, be it political or commercial.”

He also explains that when he invented the WWW, he developed it “neutral, creative and as a collaborative space” in order for anyone to “share knowledge and ideas without buying a licence or ask for permission”, but today this principle is under a great threat and needs to be evaluated.

According to him, net neutrality should involve the complete absence of restriction and all states should not implement restraints based on economic/political reasons. This neutrality would act as the assurance of equal opportunities for all online content without any preference, either in quality or speed of access.

In Europe, even today there are no clear rules on net neutrality, leaving 96% of the European population without legal protection for their right to access the internet. Berners-Lee also refers a study by the Dutch government in 2013, which concluded that net neutrality promotes greater competition, lower prices, greater connectivity and more innovation. To him, a law that guarantees this principle is central in Europe and with the Internet evolution “the need for this type of laws have changed”.

Net neutrality

Net neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by site, platform, application, content, user, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication. 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the USA is currently debating legislation to define limits for internet service providers (ISPs). Also, the European Commission, with the help of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) in the EU is actively committed to preserving the Open Internet and achieving Net Neutrality.