The net neutrality issue will affect everyone regardless of the level of online activity they have. The Federal Communications Commission is looking into the matter but the agency needs consumers to weigh in on the topic.
So far, more than a million comments have been posted about the issue and these were released by the FCC on Aug. 5 to give the public a chance to see what others are saying about net neutrality. The Sunlight Foundation took 800,000 of these comments and analyzed them to get to the bottom of what consumers are really saying.
Key findings show that an estimated less than one percent of the comments are against net neutrality. At least 60 percent of the comments too were submitted as form letters written for organized campaigns, making up majority of comments although still a lower percentage compared to the usual amount considered as high volume for regulatory dockets.
Some number of comments were also tagged as noteworthy despite not being classified under a form letter campaign because they occurred enough times to be detected in the analysis. These are comments that called for FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's resignation or those of other FCC commissioners and staff and people mentioning either John Oliver (possibly because of his stand on the issue) or a varied selection of cuss words aimed at Tom Wheeler.
Overall, this analysis from the Sunlight Foundation is partial but it is at the same time the most credible released to date. Results are showing a strong affinity towards stronger regulation, with around two-thirds of studied comments saying that broadband service providers should be reclassified under Communications Act's Title II. But if this does happen, the FCC will be able to regulate internet service providers better except at the cost of a possible political backlash.
Without net neutrality, ISPs will be able to follow a tiered system for internet speeds. This means internet speeds will essentially be for sale so richer digital companies who have more purchasing power will be able to buy increased and faster throughput. This will leave the little guys in the dust just because they can't buy the same level of throughput than the their bigger counterparts.
For those interested in performing their own analysis of the comments so far received by the FCC, data may be downloaded from the Sunlight Foundation. Comments on net neutrality may be sent to the FCC until Sept. 15.
