Trader’s Narrative

Recently, Markus Frind showed the world his income from Google Adsense. After people picked up their jaws from the floor, the congratulations started flowing in.

Everyone, however, missed that this was only possible because of the the internet’s level playing field. And that, in turn, is because of something called ‘net neutrality’ which guarantees that all data travelling on the internet is given equal priority.

Without this fundamental policy, his site would never have been able to compete with sites with deeper pockets (capable of paying for priority delivery of their data to the user). In such a world, the fact that Plenty of Fish is free would not matter since the user would be turned off by a very slow site.

If you’re confused and don’t know what I’m talking about, find out more about net neutrality by watching this short video.

Net neutrality is a very important concept because it goes to the heart of why the internet is such an amazing tool for communication. Basically it means that all information zipping through the internet is equal. None has more priority or importance, and no ISP or telecom company can act in a biased way towards any information.

Without net neutrality, you don’t decide where you go and what you see on the internet, your ISP does. If, for example, Microsoft pays your ISP, your access to Google can be throttled and so slow that you really have no choice but to use MSN Search.

Net neutrality is now under attack by new legislation which is under review by the US congress. As you would expect, the ISP companies have lobbied hard to rescind net neutrality in this new legislation. And they might actually succeed if we don’t do something about it.

Watch the above video and then contact your government representative and tell them that you do not support the removal of net neutrality.

For more information, visit Save the Internet and David Isenberg’s blog (ex ATT executive).