Comrades, I am calling upon you today to bear arms and defend net neutrality. The time has come for us to fight and defend the freedom of the Internet from bourgeoisie capitalists who wish to control the means of production and control the flow of Internet traffic for their own means.

All drama aside, the battle for net neutrality has never been fiercer. Last month, the Federal Communication Commission proposed a plan dubbed the “Open Internet.” However, this plan is nowhere near “open.” The most notable aspect of the proposal is that it will allow Internet Service Providers to charge content companies – such as Netflix and Facebook – for more bandwidth, effectively creating “fast lanes” in the Internet.

Before we discuss why these fast lanes are disadvantageous, let us understand the structure of Internet. Now, to most people, the Internet is just a mystical entity where cute cat videos seem to appear out of nowhere. But the Internet is, in honesty, quite simple to understand. The Internet is a network of computers that serves content and through which anyone, including you or me, can run a server and serve content to other people. (In fact, I personally have a couple domains and manage a personal web server from home).

Now, let me quickly explain exactly how data is passed through the Internet. Basically, you have something called the backbone, the core of the network, and these are primary routes of data to which traffic is directed. Think of it as the main pipe through which all the information flows. Now a connection to this core backbone is very, very expensive, so almost no one has a connection to this backbone (Besides, very few connections could be able to manage the massive amount of data there anyway).

Instead, a better way to get this data is to buy a connection from an ISP, which is comparable to buying a water connection from the water department. But the key here is that not all ISPs are created equal. What you have instead are Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 Internet providers. Now the Tier 1 guys have an extremely large network and infrastructure that are practically part of the backbone, and these guys can connect to other networks across the globe without having to buy to send traffic to other parts of the network. Then you got your Tier 2 guys, who buy their connection from a Tier 1 ISP and tend to be smaller in network size and have slower access to the Internet; these guys would be the source of your connection to the Internet from companies like Comcast. Then you have your Tier 3 guys, who rely completely on other networks to buy their connection to the Internet.

Now that we understand how we are connected to the Internet and how data is transferred, we can finally begin to understand why the FCC proposal is so bad. It basically allows ISPs the power to treat certain types of data differently. It would allow ISPs to charge companies to have more bandwidth and to allow some data to go through faster then other data. This is what the term ‘fast lane’ refers to. It would allow companies like Netflix or Google to deliver content much faster than if they were on the regular connection. You may be saying to yourself, “That does not sound too bad. I want my Netflix to go faster.” But, in order actually to get a faster speed, ISPs have really only one option as of right now – and that is to add infrastructure. This entails spending hundreds and thousands of dollars in order to boost speed and bandwidth. According to The Wire, it cost Google $84 million to lay fiber-optic cable for 150,000 homes in Kansas City. And that is just for networking homes together; the rest of the equipment, including the switches, routers and whatnot, costs several thousands more.

But if the FCC plan were to go into effect, ISPs would have a second, much cheaper option. They could just simply start to limit and throttle connections to the Internet. To use the pipe analogy again, they could turn the flow of water to a trickle. From there, they could just charge companies more money in order to have the same bandwidth they had before, making companies pay more for less. Now, companies like Netflix and Google could probably foot the bill, but startups and smaller companies like Dropbox or companies that rely on fast and efficient connections to deliver their services would be left behind and mostly likely drown. This so called “Open Internet” would effectively kill competition and we would no longer have the next Facebook or the next Google or the next Reddit because they would not be able to keep up with their competitors. They would not be able to contribute to the massive online community that is the Internet. It would no longer allow a guy with an idea to go forward, follow through with that idea with limited restrictions, and then have that idea be seen by millions the next day.

Today, we take free and unlimited access to the Internet for granted. We expect that all data on the Internet is available to us fully and freely. But we now are at a crossroads, and I assert that the preservation of net neutrality is perhaps the most important issue that faces our generation as of now. It is because of net neutrality that the Internet is constantly evolving and is the awesome place that it is. It is our duty to ensure that the Internet remains free for everyone to use.

So as I wrap this article up, I want you to promise me something. I request you to go to this link: http://goo.gl/xHnB4n. I want to at least take a look at and think about if a free and open Internet is important to you or not. If it is, I want you to fill that form out and urge the FCC to reclassify Internet Service Providers as Title II common carrier telecommunications service. What that basically means is that they will have to deliver all data from the Internet freely and openly and treat all data the same and forever preserve net neutrality forever. Take those few minutes and make sure that your voice is heard, because now is the time for us to fulfill our duty and defend net neutrality forever.