The Other Side to Net Neutrality

We’ve heard of all the reasons to support Net Neutrality and how not regulating the internet can cause corporations to charge more for internet speeds, and make it harder for small businesses that are just getting started to compete with the larger companies. But what are some reasons to not support Net Neutrality? An article written in Forbes magazine by Joshua Steimle brings up some reasons as to why he does not support Net Neutrality, mainly because of the legislation behind it.

            His first argument is that he supports competition. If corporations were not allowed to control the internet, then the government will be, which Steimle claims is “the largest monopoly of all”. He brings up the point that almost everything the government is in charge of, education, health care, housing, has major problems with it because the government is so slow. A slow government in charge of the internet could mean disaster. By having an open market, the companies control which ones survive and which don’t, but it also means we can have new products at lower prices, because of the competition.

            Another point brought up was the privacy issue. If the government is in charge of the internet, they can easily put their own hardware on it to monitor how data is used. Steimle says though we can trust the government now, things can change, and we may not want the government in charge of something like this in the future. Can we trust the government with our internet freedom? What about 20 years from now?

            Steimle argues that having companies control the internet rather than the government may end up better for us in the long run. Although it might be a mess at first, free markets can move faster at working out problems than the government can. Steimle made a point that if the government was in control of the telephones, would we have made all of the advancements we have today? Would the iPhone even exist?

            In my opinion, Steimle makes a good point that should be considered. However, the concept of Net Neutrality is too important to shoot down because of the legislation behind it. To me, the government is more trustworthy than large, greedy corporations. But if the government is going to be in charge, regulations should be put in place so that the control can be shifted outside of the government in case they fail to run the internet the way the people want.