"Nobody with money wants to see net neutrality enforced"

Net neutrality is a principle according to which there should be no discrimination between two packages of content which are the same. That means that two web pages or two websites have to be treated equally on the internet. It's an important principle because internet service providers (or ISPs) could discriminate if it didn't exist. What's more, as they're able to speed up or slow down their service, without neutrality they could cut off some content's traffic. Blocking something on the internet is censorship, just like when a state prevents an article from appearing in a newspaper, for example. That's right. Net neutrality has always been an underlying idea where the internet is concerned. The internet's current neutrality is fortuitous, as technology hasn't made discrimination between content possible yet. Now it's time to discuss regulation, because the technology is improving and the ISPs are interested in discriminating.

So far, regulation has basically covered telecommunications, but it doesn't apply to the internet. We therefore need to transfer regulation to the internet to maintain the status quo. The USA has announced that it will introduce a law, but nothing has been done yet. Chile has a new law, but doesn't apply it. Holland has just passed a law, but that's not enforced either. In other words, they haven't taken the trouble to make the laws work. The situation is the same in Finland. So, there has been some success in terms of legislation, but no practical effects as yet. Exactly. Making a law is like designing a building without ever getting to build it. It's true that making a law is complicated, technically speaking, but it's also true that there are many economic interests in play. The television companies, the film and music industries and ISPs have no interest in net neutrality being regulated. Nobody with money wants to see net neutrality enforced. If politicians were only guided by economic criteria, they wouldn't want it regulated either. The Commission made a major announcement, saying that it was supporting net neutrality. Nothing has been done to back up that statement though, so the situation is the same as in Chile and Holland. No details have been forthcoming. It's a mixed form of regulation involving the government and the industry. My suggestion is self-regulation for the industry with legislation from the government. Ideally, the sector would just regulate itself, but with a law paving the way for governmental intervention if that isn't working. You could say that it's like self-regulation backed by a threat. The government would tell the industry "we'll take action if you don't behave". I'm proposing that formula because it doesn't seem that the industry is interested in offering any guarantees. That means it's necessary to have a law to fall back on to keep the sector in line. It's an Indian story about three monkeys who want to avoid getting involved in the problems occurring around them. One sees no evil, another hears no evil and the third speaks no evil.

As things are at the moment, ISPs ignore the content that circulates via the internet. They have to be blind, deaf and mute in relation to all the traffic that exists. That form of conduct has been positive so far, as it has allowed everything to circulate. It's a simple solution. I think that would be a good thing in some cases. For example, those who want to have the Disney Channel online should pay for it. I also think that there must be scope for free content though. I'm fine with the idea of premium content costing more. I'm not an out and out neutrality man in that respect. However, the government has to ensure that a lot of content is free and that ISPs don't start charging for everything. If you pass a law and don't enforce it, there's no point in having made it. The risk lies in ISPs not giving users full service information. They don't tell you what speed you have, about data flows or if they're trying to throttle your speed. In other areas, information is readily available. If you go to the supermarket, you can find out exactly what's in a product by reading its label. Not everyone checks the label, but the information has to be there.