The Net neutrality issue is once again in hot water as the European Parliament is gearing up to vote on a proposal that aims to protect internet neutrality. Tech companies such as Reddit, Netflix, Kickstarter and Tumblr as well as the creator of the World Wide Web himself, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, are urging European politicians to trash the net neutrality proposal.
According to Huffington Post, the Net neutrality proposal aims to protect the internet and keep it as an open and free platform. However, critics of the proposal discovered that it contains dangerous loopholes that might pose a threat to free speech, democracy and innovation within Europe.
Berners-Lee posted in a blog post, "The proposed regulations are weak and confusing. To keep Europe innovative and competitive, it is essential that MEPs adopt amendments for stronger 'network neutrality.'"
On the other hand, 34 tech companies and venture capitalists has also sent a letter to the European Parliament highlighting the weaknesses and loopholes of the proposal. The letters cited the recently passed Open Internet Order in the United States as an example of a true neutral regulation when it comes to the management of the Internet.
Internet activists said that the current proposal have four crucial and possibly devastating loopholes.
First is the Fast Lane feature. This is a specialized service that allows Internet Service Providers to create a "two-tiered" Internet. A premium fast-lane for those who can afford it and a normal lane for everybody else.
The second loop hole is called the Zero-rating. This allows ISPs to freely choose which services will be counted as part of the customer's monthly data bandwidth. Critics said that this could potentially distort the market as services not counted as part of the bandwidth would be a limit to competitors.
The third loop hole called Class-based throttling allow ISPs to define categorize certain content in classes. ISPs have the full rights to speed up or slow down traffic depending on those classes. Critics said that all content in the Internet should be treated equally regardless of their class.
Finally, the network congestion loop holes will allow ISPs to slow down Internet traffic in order to avoid "impending congestion." Critics said that the term "impending" is too subjective and this could allow ISPs to freely slow down traffic by just citing an "impending congestion" scenario.
The European Parliament will vote on Internet neutrality proposal on Oct. 27.