On Net Neutrality (2014)

There’s been a lot of hubbub about Net Neutrality again lately now that Obama has officially come out in support of it (something he supported when he ran in 2008, then seemed to not when he appointed Tom Wheeler to chair the FCC in 2013). This week I put together some notes for my students to review so that next week, we can have a class discussion about Net Neutrality and how it can affect us moving forward. After the jump, you’ll see the resources I provided to them.

Net Neutrality: The principle that Internet service providers should enable access to all content and applications regardless of the source, and without favoring or blocking particular products or websites.

John Oliver does an amazing job of explaining it. Watch the video:

Recently President Obama came out in support of Net Neutrality:

This prompted Sen. Ted Cruz (R- TX) to say:

"Net Neutrality" is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.

— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) November 10, 2014

…which made The Oatmeal respond like this: The Oatmeal on Net Neutrality.