Road to an open internet 

Road to an open internet 

Context

Author talks about as to how net neutrality has transcended from being a technical rhetoric to a subject with widespread public discussion and debate owing to the inherent sense of fairness being involved

Net neutrality

Net neutrality creates rules for a free and open Internet.It requires that barriers should not be created by telecom and Internet service providers for user choice by limiting their power to discriminate between content providers and different classes of content. Through binding rules and regulations, the power of access providers to selectively price or create technical imbalances is corrected

SC’s position

In a recent judgement pertaining to a presidential reference on allocation of natural resources, SC has observed that,

“as natural resources are public goods, the doctrine of equality, which emerges from concepts of justice and fairness, must guide the state in determining the actual mechanism for distribution of material resources”

In simpler words, equality should be the mainstay of any resource allocation done by the government. There should be no partiality of any sort. Resources are to be allocated with full fairness and as per the competence of the respective companies.

Why the debate of net neutrality has taken up such a wide recognition?

Following reasons can be attributed to this phenomenon,

1. Concept of net neutrality involves aperception of fairness which appeals to us in a personal manner. No one should be limited to a set of options over internet
2. Impact on freedom to speech & Expression: Each one of us uses internet on a daily basis. Any metric that is going to affect the nature of our internet usage has the potential of affecting our rights very deeply. Same holds true for net neutrality. Tinkering with it would impact both the right to speak and the ability to receive knowledge, hence impacting our right to freedom of speech and expression

Such realisation is found in the Differential Pricing Regulation issued on February 8, 2016, which prevented telecom companies from pricing access to Internet websites and content differently. In the explanatory memorandum to this regulation, TRAI states, “As observed by the Supreme Court, in the Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting v. Cricket Association of Bengal, (1995) 2 SCC 161, para 201(3)(b) allowing citizens the benefit of plurality of views and a range of opinions on all public issues is an essential component of the right to free speech. This includes the right to express oneself as well as the right to receive information as observed by the Supreme Court in the Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Pvt. Ltd. v. Union of India, (1985) 1 SCC 641 case.”

Conclusion

The Net neutrality campaign has not been without criticism and growing public disappointment. While such sentiments may arise from legitimate concerns, they are disproportionate to the greater benefit of raising public debate