In case you aren’t sure what this all means, let’s break it down. Basically, net neutrality gives people equal access to all websites, as long as it isn’t illegal dark web content. You have a service provider and pay a flat rate for access to the entire internet freely. With the repeal of NN, internet providers will have the choice to make your internet experience become more similar to a cable subscription, fixing prices how they see fit. This could limit your access to how many websites you can reach based on the internet package you have. This is extremely troubling for marginalized groups who are already deep in the digital divide and lack-of-access communities.
There isn’t any guarantee that the IP’s will choose to do this, but the tidbit is that they now actually have the choice to do that with no NN laws restricting them. “If we don’t have net neutrality protections that enforce tenets of fairness online, you give internet service providers the ability to choose winners and losers,” Steve Huffman, chief executive of Reddit, said in an interview. “This is not hyperbole.”
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who voted against Pai’s proposal, stated, “What this proposal would do is it would give broadband providers the legal right and the power to start blocking websites, or censoring content if they don’t have a commercial relationship with that content. And so the open internet as we know it could change. Perhaps not immediately, but over time. And I think that’s troubling.”