The proposed deal between Google and Verizon to create two tiers of service for Internet traffic has made waves throughout the technology and telecommunications industry. It also managed to rile network neutrality and privacy advocates, who see the proposed partnership in much starker terms, with some even going as far as calling the deal the end of the Internet as we know it.
Chip Bruce, a professor of library and information science at the University of Illinois, was interviewed by News Bureau reporter Phil Ciciora about the Google-Verizon partnership and its impact on network neutrality.
What makes the proposed partnership between Google and Verizon so scary for consumers? Why should this give the average person pause?
Today, you can go online to see content offered by Google or Verizon, but also that of other large computer and communications companies, small businesses, governments and non-governmental organizations, and potentially any of the world's 2 billion Internet users as well as content produced originally offline. Google says that this partnership won't endanger that, but the loss of net neutrality is a first step away from open access to information and toward pre-packaged service.
Verizon wants to be able to serve its content faster or even in lieu of any of its competitors' content. You'd be able to get news, music, videos and sports as always, but Google-Verizon could say which version you'd see. This immediately endangers free speech and the free flow of information, because private companies would essentially have the final say on what gets out. It also has implications for privacy of Internet use, since the providers will need to examine Internet content in order to control it.
There are also major risks for innovation on the Internet. Suppose that someone in a dorm or a garage devises a better way to deliver television and movies. If major providers control which information flows in what way, those young entrepreneurs may never get the chance to enter their idea into the marketplace.
Net neutrality advocates would argue that the increasing corporate control over the Internet essentially has privatized a service that was developed at public expense to serve public needs. Does that line of reasoning also hold for wireless networks?
Much of the basic technology for both wired and wireless systems has been developed at public expense to serve public needs. The communications corporations would argue that they've invested a huge amount on top of that, and in absolute dollar terms, they have.
But beyond any argument about who paid for what, we should remember why public funds have been used to support basic communications. The primary reason is the understanding that a viable democracy requires free and open communication among an educated public. In addition, an open system fosters economic development, cultural exchange, education and many other public goods.
Corporate control over the Internet offers no assurance that these public values will be served. In fact, by law, corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to serve their stockholders, not the public.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently has argued against the "sheer impracticality" of net neutrality on wireless networks. Is he correct?
There has never been nor will there ever be full and absolute net neutrality. Money and power speak in many ways to ensure, for example, that an ordinary person does not have the same access as a major multinational corporation does. With demand exceeding capacity, it may be difficult in the short run to maintain net neutrality on wireless networks. However, the bigger question is what policies we should strive to maintain. Do we want communications systems that afford the greatest possible freedom of access and use for all, or do we want a small set of closed systems, offering controlled and pre-packaged content?
It seems like corporations are increasingly setting the terms for the net neutrality debate. What should the FCC do to re-assert its jurisdiction and authority?
A key issue is whether we want to allow the major means for Internet access to become a set of packages of controlled information, like an individual book or magazine in print form. That's what the loss of net neutrality could mean.
But I see the Internet as a communications system, and major communications companies as common carriers of those communications. As such, it's crucial that they be required to deliver communications without tiers for special services, favoritism or control of content. In that sense, the Internet is more akin to the print publishing world, not to a single book.
This means that the FCC needs to "reclassify" broadband from being an information service to a telecommunications service, which would then require communications companies to ensure open use.
What would an Internet without net neutrality look like?
We don't know for sure, and there are many reasons why - corporations may react in different ways, the public may acquiesce or rebel, and the technologies may change in radical ways we can't foresee today.
It's increasingly likely, however, that the Internet experience will become one defined by the specific service one purchases, whether that's through Verizon, Comcast, AT&T, or some other company. Each corporation will seek to meet consumer needs, but in a way that maximizes its profit. For example, every service will offer movies, but the cost, terms of service, and so on, will be those of that provider. There will be a financial incentive to deprecate services that don't generate revenue. What's being sold is then a package of services, not general communication access.
The ordinary user will see some enticing new services, as each corporation tries to lure customers. But she or he will not find some content they find now, because it won't support the business model. A recent example is Comcast's undermining of net neutrality by shutting down peer-to-peer networking - in particular, BitTorrent. A U.S. Appeals Court ruling in April allowed that under the assumption of the Internet as information service.
And it's not just cheap entertainment that will be lost. About the same time as the U.S. Appeals Court ruling, WikiLeaks released a classified U.S. military video showing the killing of more than a dozen people in Iraq, including two Reuters news staffers. What guarantee do we have a profit-seeking corporation will provide open access to independent media?
Suppose you think BitTorrent and WikiLeaks are wrong. Do you want your Internet provider to decide what you can and cannot see? Beyond the specifics of access, privacy, free speech and innovation, the big question is, "Who should decide Internet policy?"